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First day — IVaithig fot the teacher. 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 
IN NEW ENGLAND 



TEXT AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

CLIFTON MOHNSON 




NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

l8q^ 



■<OCT 7 ld93^.) 



p- 



do 



Copyright, 1893, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 



Electrotyped and Printed 

AT THE ApPLETON PrESS, U. S. A. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

PACE 

Old-fashioned School Days, 1800- 182 5 i 



PART II. 
The Mh)-Century Schools, 1840-1860 31 

PART III. 
The Country School of To-day 56 

PART IV. 
Ho\y the Scholars Think and Write 83 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PACE 



First day — Waiting for the teacher Fnmtispiccc 

An old-time school girl ............. i 

A little red schoolhouse at the parting of the roads ........ 3 

Schoolgirls 6 

The school at work Facing 8 

Snowballing ...............11 

Schoolboys .............. Facing i 5 

The road to learning ............. 1 5 

A hard sum ............... 17 

Work for the boy after school . . . . . . . . . . .21 

Recess — Watching a team go by . . . . . . . . . . Facing 22 

On the way home from school ........... 24 

Getting her lesson 27 

The teacher going home ............ 30 

A winter morning 31 

The school plays Drop the Handkerchief ........ Facing 31 

The road to school 33 

A hillside schoolhouse ............. 35 

Cubby-house dolls .............. 37 

On the way to school Facing 38 

A Saturday holiday. Eating sassafras 39 

Doing arithmetic examples on the blackboard ........ 42 

After school 44 

Passing the water 46 

A play-school in the haytield Facing 48 

Out at little recess 48 

A punishment .............. 50 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

52 
The school takes a boat-ride 

54 
A holiday. Playing at gypsies 

A drawing by one of the school-ch;klre:i 

56 
In the meadow at recess 

A New England academy ^ 

, ■ 1 ^ .... Facing 58 

An excuse for being late 

The Riverbend schoolhouse 

The bov vvho makes the fire 

. . . • 63 

Gymnastics 

A game of Fox and Geese 

66 
Starting the hre 

The close of recess 

. Facing 69 
Writing time 

A class in geography 

Sharpening his slate pencil 

The class in the Fifth Reader ^2 

The Primer class 

Schoolroom decoration 

A drink from a stream in the woods on the way home from school . . . n 

,, • ... Facing 78 
A noon lunch on the river ^ ' 

A rainy day school at home 

One of the big boys 

The good boy who is allowed to study out of doors - 

Writing a composition 

The commonest type of the country schoolhouse ^+ 

89 
After a snowstorm 

The second class in reading ^^'"^ ^i 

The teacher gives one of the boys a shaking. Drawn by the boy 93 

The school on skates Facing 94 

Facsimile of one of the youngest scholars' manuscript 97 

Blackboard drawings—" A farmer, his little girl, and his wife " '98 

A Connecticut Valley schoolhouse in floodtime 99 

. . . • 100 
A schoolboy 



V 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



OLD-FASHIONKD SCHOOL DAYS, 1800-1825. 

WINTKR. 

IGHTV years ago, in the kitchen of a farm- 
house on the hills in western Massachusetts, 
a woman, birch broom in hand, was sweep- 
ino; the floor. It was early on a Wednesday 
mornino^ of the first week in December, and a 
l)risk fire was burninir in the cavernous fire- 
place. The woman's daughter was wij)ino: off 
the table at the side of the room where she 
had been washing the breakfast dishes. She 
was a chubby little girl, rather small of her age, 
• and stood on tiptoe while she gave the tal)le 

An oU.ti,ne schoolgirl. .^ yigOrOUS SCOUriug. 

"Isn't it school-time, Betsey?" asked her mother. 

The little girl hung the dishcloth in the back room and trotted 
into the hall where stood a solemn-faced, tall clock. Slie looked 
up at it earnestly a few moments, ma(k' some lialf-whispered cal- 
culations, and returned to the kitchen. " It's twentv minutes past 
eight," she said to her mother. 

" Well, change your apron and run ak)ng. Wm won't be much 




2 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

too soon. There's your dinner basket by the door. I put up your 
dinner when I cleared away the breakfast things." 

Mrs. Hall swept the dust she had brushed together into the 
fireplace and went about her other housework. Betsey quickly 
made herself ready, and soon was running along the highway 
toward the schoolhouse. The morning was clear and cold ; the 
sun just above the southeastern horizon was shining brightly, and 
made the brown, frosty fields sparkle in the light. Betsey lived 
more than a mile from the schoolhouse. The road was a rough 
one. For a part of the way it led through the woods, but in the 
main it was bordered by open fields and shut in by stone walls. 
Betsey usually ran down the hills, and was pretty sure to arrive 
at the schoolhouse quite out of breath. 

Her clothing was very neat, but rude in pattern and extremely 
plain. It had all been woven, colored, and made up at home. She 
herself had done some of the knitting, and had spent tiresome hours 
at the quill wheel. Her dress was woolen, plain, and straight, with 
no ruffles at neck or skirt, and it was considerably longer than would 
be worn by little girls of her age now. Hooks and eyes served 
instead of buttons to fasten it at the back. She wore a little apron, 
tied at the waist, of blue and white checked cotton. Her stout 
leather shoes were broad-soled and comfortable, but only ankle 
high. Stockings and mittens were striped blue and white. Over 
her short-cropped hair she wore a little white woolen blanket about 
a yard square. In her hand was the basket containing her lunch. 
When she came trotting up to the schoolhouse she found a 
dozen of her mates on the sunny side of the building kicking 



old-fashionp:d school days— winter. 3 

their heels a^i^ainst tlic chipboards and wailino; for the teacher. 
Betsey carried her dinner basket into the entry and then ran out 
and said, " Let's play tag till the schoolmaster comes." The others 




.•/ littU- r,;i schoolhi'ust- at the partitii;: of the roads 



agreed, and soon all were in motion, running, dodging, and shout- 
ing till the little vard- and narrow roadway seemed full of tl\ing 
figures. 

The schoolhouse was a small, one-story building, brown with 
age. Behind, the woods came close up ; before it was a little oj)en 
vard which merged into the highwav that came over the hill east- 
ward and then rambled west along the level. A little walk down 
the road was a house. No other was in sight, though at least half 
a dozen scattered homes lay over the hill just beyond view. ()})- 
posite the schoolhouse was a pasture, and the children had worn 



4 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

a rough path through the grasses by the roadside on their way to 
and from the brook over the wall where they got water to drink. 

This morning the smoke was curling up from the chimney 
straight into the frosty air. The big boys took turns in making 
the fire. To-day Jonas Bird, with his coat tight buttoned and the 
collar up, cap pulled down over his ears, and hands in his pockets, 
had come stumping along the hard frozen road just after sun-up. 
There was no lock to the schoolhouse — few people at that time 
thought of locking doors — and Jonas walked right into the little 
entry. The space on one side was half filled with three-foot wood. 
On the other side were rows of pegs for the scholars' hats. 

An axe was handy, and the boy proceeded to split some kindlings. 
He carried an armful of these inside. Jonas poked among the ashes, 
found the coals still alive, and soon had a fine blaze in the big fire- 
place. He brought in more wood from the entry and some larger 
wood from the yard, where it had been left by the farmers of the 
district for the scholars to cut up. It was sled length as they left it, 
and it had to be cut two or three times before it was ready for the 
fireplace. Jonas chopped what he judged would be a day's supply, 
then went in and sat in the master's chair by the fire and made him- 
self comfortable awaiting the arrival of the others. 

The room was plain and bare — no pictures, no maps, not even a 
blackboard. The walls were sheathed up with wooden panels, but 
the ceiling was plastered. On each side, to the north and south, was 
a window, and at the back two. The fireplace was on the fourth side, 
projecting somewhat into the room. To the right of it was the 
entrance, and to the left was a door opening into a dark little closet 



OLD FASHK^XEl) SCHOOL DAYS- WIN IKK. 5 

where were pe^s for the *i;irls to hang their thin<rs on, and a bencli 
where they set their dinner baskets. 

A single eontinuuus line of desks ran around three sides of the 
room, leaving an open spaee next the wall where the big seiiolars 
walked when they went to their plaees. The seat whieh aeeom- 
panied this long desk was also continuous, and the scholars were 
obliged to step over it before being seated. This and the desk were 
raised on a little platform a few inches above the level of the Hoor. 
On the front of the desk was another seat, low down, for the smaller 
children. These could use the desk for a back, but had no desk 
themselves, while the olders ones had the desk but no back. In the 
open space, in front, was the teacher's table, and on it two or three 
books, an ink bottle and quills, a lot of copy books, and a ruler. 
Jonas was using the teacher's chair, but he replaced it by the desk 
when the other scholars began to arrive. 

In the midst of the game of tag some one cried, "The school- 
master's coming," and the uproar ceased. He was a quiet, rather 
stern-looking young man, the son of a farmer of a neighboring town. 
For several winters he had been teaching, but not with the idea of 
making that his calling. He had gone through the common schools 
with credit, and studied at an academy for a year or two. Summers 
he worked on the farm, and he intended to be a fiirnier. but in winter 
work was slack at home, and, as he could be spared, he took the 
oj)portunity to gain ready money by teaching. There were man\' 
young men in the country towns doing likewise. 

His pay was small, but he was at no expense for his living, as he 
" boarded round " — that is, he stayed with each family of the neighbor- 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



hood for a length of time proportioned to the number of scholars it 
sent to the school. At the beginning of the term the teacher divided 
the number of days by the number of pupils,' and thus determined 
how long he should stay with each family. It sometimes happened 
that after staying all around the allotted time there were still a few 
days left to teach, and then, in order to have things come out even, 
the master would change his boarding place every night. When 
neighbor met neighbor it was always an interesting topic of inquiry 
where the teacher was stopping and where he was going next, and 
his having to " warm so many beds " was a standing joke. 

The teacher of this winter's school was at present staying with the 
Holmans, and the four children of the family came down the hill 

with him, but ran on ahead 

when they approached the 
schoolhouse. All had dinner 
baskets, the master included. 
When he was nearly to the 
schoolhouse the scholars ran 
in, and when he entered the 
door he found them all stand- 
ing in their places. He re- 
moved his hat, bowed, and 
said " Good morning," and the 
whole school " made their 
manners " — the boys bowed 
and the girls courtesied — and 
said " Good morning, sir." 




OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAYS— WINTER. 7 

Then the older ones stepped over their seats, all sat down, and 
sehool beo;an at onee. 

Schools were supposed to beoin at nine o'clock, hut few teachers 
had watches, and they could not well be exact. Some would bring- 
hour glasses, but the only timekeeper a school was sure to have was 
a noon mark on a southern window sill. Mven this was useless on 
clouded days, and a good deal of guessing had to be done. 

The first exercise in the morning was reading in the Testament. 
Rach scholar who was able read two verses. In those times prayers 
were not said in school, and the reading completed the morning 
worship. The scholars began studying now. and the smallest chil- 
dren were called up to say their letters. The winter term began the 
week after Thanksgiving, and continued twelve, fourteen, and even 
sixteen weeks. The cold weather, bad traveling, and distance pre- 
vented most of the smaller ones from coming; but the big boys and 
girls, who had been kept out at work during the summer, came 
instead, and the school would number twenty-live or thirty pupils. 
The oldest scholars, though almost men and women in size, were 
none older than fourteen or fifteen. Most left school for good at 
that age, but a few would study at an academy in a neighboring town, 
and now and then a boy would fit himself for college by studying 
with the minister. College education for girls was unthought of, and 
no institution existed where such education could be had for the 
daughters. 

The youngest scholars had no books. When they recited they 
came up before the teacher, who pointed out the letters in the Speller 
with his quill. This book was the famous Webster's Spelling Book,. 



8 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

a blue-covered, homely little volume, containing, besides the alphabet, 
the figures, Roman and Arabic, days of the week, months of the year, 
abbreviations, names of the States, and various other things. The 
speller also served as a reader. The first and simplest reading began 
with, "No man may put off the law of God." Farther on were some 
little stories and fables, accompanied by a few rude pictures. Lastly 
came the Moral Catechism, starting with the question, " Is pride 
commendable ? " 

In spelling, the children began with words of two letters. Elderly 
people sometimes speak of " learning their a-b abs," meaning by that 
the learning to spell words of two letters. They would spell thus : 
"A-b ab, e-b eb, i-b ib, o-b ob, u-b ub, b-a ba, b-e be, b-i bi, b-o bo, 
b-u bu, b-y by," and so on right through the alphabet. By the time 
they possessed a Speller they would perhaps be able to spell cat and 
dog and other three-letter words. Besides spelling, they learned 
something of the sounds of the letters and to count a little. When 
the class finished reciting they were sent to their seats. The smaller 
children had neither slates nor books to amuse themselves with, and 
after reciting could only sit still and watch and listen to the others. 
Very tiresome they found this sometimes. If they became restless, so 
much the worse for them, for the teacher would then reprimand them, 
and tell them to fold their hands and be quiet, and perhaps threaten 
them with punishment. 

The next older class were taking their ^^^t reading lessons from 
the Speller. Even the oldest of the scholars used that book to spell 
from. 

Another of the schoolbooks of the time was The New England 



OLD-P\\SHIOXED SCHOOL DAYS— WINTER. n 

Primer. It was a small, thin, blue-covered volume, contained many- 
little stories, proverbs, rhymes, and questions, and quaint little wood- 
cuts, and was ([uite religious in tone, in one place tiie alphaix't was 
given with a picture and rhvme for each letter. Both pictures and 
rhymes were so rude that, in spite of the seriousness of the themes, 
they seem to us very humorous. Here are specimens of the jingles : 

" Noah did view 
The Old World and New." 

" Zaccheus, he, 
Did climb the tree 
His Lord to see." 

" Vounjj^ Obadias, 
David and Josias, 
All were pious." 

About the middle of the forenoon the scholars put aside other 
tasks, and wrote. At close of school, on the night before, the teacher 
had set their cojmcs — that is, he had written a sentence across the 
top line of a })age in each scholar's "copy book." The chihhen made 
these copv books at home from large sheets of blank, unlined i)aper, 
which they folded and sewed into a cover of brown paper, or one 
made from an old newspaper. In school, each pupil had a ruler and 
plummet, and with these made the lines to write on. They had no 
lead pi-ncils, but tiie plummet answered instead. Phimmets were 
made at home bv melting waste lead and running it in shallow 
grooves two or three inches long cut in a stick of wood. Sometimes 
the cracks in the kitchen lloor were found to be convenient places to 
run the lead in. When tiie metal cooled a little it was whittled and 



lO THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

smoothed down and pointed, and perhaps, as a final touch, a hole was 
bored through the big end, that the owner might hang his plummet 
on a string about his neck. 

Scholars just beginning to write made " hooks and trammels," the 
"hooks" being curved lines, and the "trammels" straight ones. 
After practicing on these a while they were advanced to letters, and 
later to words and sentences. Each pupil had a bottle of ink and a 
quill pen. Whenever the pen became worn or broken the teacher 
was asked to " mend " it ; or, if entirely used up, the scholar would 
bring a fresh quill to the teacher, and say, " Please, sir, will you make 
my pen for me?" and the teacher, with his jackknife, would comply. 
The mending was simply whittling it down and making a new point. 
There was quite a knack in doing this quickly and well. 

Toward eleven o'clock the girls had their recess, but it w^as short, 
and gave them little time to play. At the end of five minutes the 
teacher came to the door and rapped sharply on the side of the 
building with his ruler, which was the signal for them to come in. 
Then the boys had their recess. 

Of history, grammar, and geography the scholars learned very 
little. The Speller barely touched upon these subjects, but they had 
no separate text-books. 

The children were taught to count on their fingers, and when, in 
summer, they came barefoot, toes, too, were made to do duty. Some 
progress, besides, was made in adding and subtracting. In learning to 
multiply they used little rhymes to help their memory, on the same 
plan as the counting ditty in Mother Goose, " One two, buckle my 
shoe," etc. Finally, w^hen they were in the highest class in school. 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL LA^ b— U Ls 1 LK. 



II 




.N;/,'r.V',//// 



they had a text-book called Root's Arithmetic. Like all the smaller 
schoolbooks, it had a grayish blue cover of paper pasted over thin 
wood. If tiie book were roughly handled, or bent much, the wood 
cracked and splintered, .um], with ten restless little tinL!;ers handlinij: it, 
the cover, fragment by fragment, soon disappeared. The arithmetic 
scholars had slates on which they did their sums. When the teacher 
pronounced the sums correct, these were neatly copied from the slate 
into blank books, made like their writing books and known as 
" ciijlicring Books." 

The forenoon wore awav, and the sun shone in full at the southern 
windows. Just as the shadow of the middle window frame crept into 
a little furrow cut in the wooden sill with a jackknife, school was 
dismissed. Before the shadow was out on the other side of the noon 



12 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

mark the girls had secured their dinner baskets from the Httle closet 
back of the chimney, and the boys had grabbed up theirs with their 
hats in the entry, and the whole school was in the yard. To-day 
they all climbed over to the sunny side of the stone wall back of 
the schoolhouse, and soon were busy eating. 

Beneath the cloth in the square little baskets were bread and 
butter and doughnuts and gingerbread, and perhaps an apple or two. 
When they had finished eating they began to chatter more freely, and 
most of the scholars clambered back over the wall and ran down to 
the brook for a drink. Liddy Marks had brought a bottle of 
sweetened water, and didn't need to go to the brook. The sweeten- 
ing was supplied by maple sugar, and I fancy the scholars looked on 
with watery mouths and envious eyes while Liddy emptied her 
bottle. 

In the wood back of the schoolhouse were many beech trees, 
now bare-limbed, but very handsome in their smooth, gray, mottled 
bark. Among the leaves on the ground were many of the brown 
nuts scattered there by autumn winds and frosts. The squirrels were 
busy harvesting them, and with noisy chatter raced about over the 
ground and up the tree trunks. The children came too, shouting 
and tumbling about among the rustling leaves. With a bit of brush 
they would poke about under the beeches, and eat, and fill their 
pockets. Then, perhaps, they would start a game of " hide and seek," 
and when the one at the goal shouted " Coming ! " there would be 
one of his fellows behind every neighboring tree trunk and bowlder. 

Other games they often played were blindman's-buff, tag, hull- 
gull, odd or even, and ball. The ball would be a home-made affair, 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAYS— WINTER. 



13 



of old stockincr ravcliiiLiS wound to<i^ctlicr and covered with sheep- 
skin. The club would be a round stick selected from the wood- 
{)ile. 

At about one o'clock the rattling of the teacher's ruler on the 
clapboards of the schoolhouse brought the scholars in, and work was 
resumed. Spelling, reading, and writing were gone through with 
again. The only change was in the case of older scholars, who 
read from the Testament in the morning, hut in the afternoon used 
instead a book of prose and verse selections called The Art of 
Reading. 

.Vs the day wore on it grew colder; the wind came uj) and rat- 
tled the loose clapboards, and whistled about the eaves and chim- 
ney-mouth, and made the branches of the trees back of the school- 
house sway and shiver. Winter seemed to have pounced upon them 
all at once, and the Indian summer, which had held on this year 
longer than usual, came to a sudden end. A good deal of air came 
in at the cracks of the little building, and the master found it neces- 
sary to pile the wood on the fire more and more frecjuentlv. Now 
and then one of the big boys would be sent out in the yard for a 
fresh armful of the three-foot sticks. He would set them up against 
the wall ne.xt the fireplace, where the llames were dancing and 
making mad lea|)s u{) the chimney, as if anxious to join the tumult 
of tlie wind outside. 

Just after recess one of the boys said all the cut wood in the 
yard was gone. Jonas Bird, whose duty it had been to furnish a 
supply for the day, had not calculated on such cold weather, and 
the master had to call on two of the big boys to go out and cut 



14 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



more. To be sure, there was a small store of wood ready cut in 
the entry, but that was reserved for an emergency. A little before 
school closed the master asked, " Who is going to make the fire in 
the morning } " and Willie Smith said it was his turn, but he had an 
errand to do, and he didn't believe he could get there in time. Jonas 
Bird then said he would make it again. The question, who should 
chop the wood and build the fire for the next day, was one which 
had to be decided each afternoon. 

When the school was ready to close the teacher appointed one 
of the girls to get her mates' things from the closet and pass them 
around. As soon as the girls had pinned the little blankets over their 
heads and put on their mittens, the whole school rose, and one by 
one, beginning with the smallest children, they were dismissed. 
Each paused at the door, and turned toward the teacher and " made 
his or her manners," 

Once outdoors, the scholars separated, some to go up the road, 
some down, while three or four cut across lots home. Betsey had 
company about half way ; then the road divided, and she went on 
alone. The sky had grayed over, and the sun, dully glaring in the 
haze, was just sinking behind a western hilltop. The wind was blow- 
ing sharply, and the leaves were rustling along the frozen earth trying 
to find some quiet nook or hollow to hide in. The little girl bent 
her head and pushed on against the wind, even humming a little to 
herself, and seemed not at all to mind the roughness of the weather. 

Nevertheless, she was glad to get home, and to stand and rub her 
hands before the fire snapping and blazing in the big fireplace. 

Just before going to bed, Mr. Hall put his head out of the door 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAYS— WINTER. 



15 



to see what the weather {)rospects were. The wind had gone down 
a little, but it was snowing;. " Waal," he said, " 1 thoiight 'twould 
snow before morning", but 1 didn't s'j)ose 'twould l^eg^in so quick. I 
declare, it's coming down considerable thick, too." He withdrew his 
head, brushed a few white flakes from his hair, and stood some min- 
utes by the fire warminor himself. Then he shoveled the ashes over 
the coals and went to bed. 




The storm proved an unusually heavy one. At dayliijht on the 
morrow the air was still full of the falling flakes, but the storm 
slackened presently, and by breakfast time it had stopped snowing. 
The brown fields had been deej) buried in their winter mantle, and 
there were big drifts in the road. 

Betsey went to school that day on an o.\ sled. She started 
directly after breakfast, as the sled was to collect all the other 
scholars who lived along the wav, and there were drifts which must 
be shoveled out. Her father and three bis- biothers went too. and 



l6 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

shouted at the oxen as they plodded along the roadway, with a 
pause now and then when they found the road blocked by a drift 
which required shoveling. They picked up other children, and 
presently had a sled full, some clinging to the stakes along the 
sides, others sitting on the bottom, all shouting, or stamping, or 
pelting the oxen, and having a great frolic. 

Some time before this Jonas Bird had ploughed his way through 
the snow to the schoolhouse. He wished Willie Smith had made his 
own fire that morning. However, there was no helping the matter. 
He stamped the snow from his boots on the door-sill and carried 
in the kindlings from the entry; but, to his dismay, he found no 
coals amiOng the ashes — naught but a few sparks, which at once 
flashed out. Jonas felt that his life was a hard one. It was before 
the time of matches, and he must go to a neighbor's and borrow 
some fire. He pulled off a broad strip of green hemlock bark from 
a log in the yard, and kicked along through the snow to the near- 
est house, where he was made welcome to all the coals he wanted. 
He wrapped several in the green bark, and returned. 

When he had deposited the coals in the fireplace and piled the 
kindlings on top, he got down on his hands and knees, and, by blow- 
ing lustily, fanned the coals into a blaze ; and when the fire was well 
started he went out and cleared a little space next the woodpile. 
There he was chopping when Betsey and the children with her came 
up on the ox sled. Another sled-load soon arrived from the oppo- 
site direction, and the scholars were all there. 

They tramped around in the snow till the ox teams left, and 
then went indoors and crowded about the fire. Soon afterward 



OLU-FASHIOXED SCHOOL DAYS-WINTER. 



17 



the master came, and school began. This day was much hke the 
day before, excej)t tliat they had a shorter nooning, because in the 
snow they could not well play out of doors, and school closed 
earlier. The short noonings and earl\' closing were continued 
through the term. 

Winter had now fairly begun. In spite of the cold and the bad 
traveling, the scholars were (juite regular in attendance. They, for 
the most part, walked back and forth, rarely getting a ride, excejH 
when, after a storm, the roads had to be broken out. The brook, 
these winter days, was frozen and snow-covered, and the chikiren, 
when thirsty, would hold a snowball in their hands till' it became 
water-soaked, and then suck it. They did not care to play out of 




,8 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

doors much, though at times some of the older boys and girls would 
go out and snowball, or start a game of " fox and geese." The girls 
were kept in more than the boys because of their skirts, which easily 
became wet and frozen in the snow, and also on account of their 
shoes, which only came ankle high, and had a tendency to fill with 
snow at the sides. They had no leggings, but when the roads 
were worst would perhaps pull on a pair of old stockings over their 
shoes. 

School kept every day in the week except Sunday, and there 
was no pause at Christmas, or New Years, or Washington's Birth- 
day, for none of these days were made much of at that time. If 
the teacher was sick, or for some other reason lost a day, he would 
make it up at the end of the term. Thus it happened that the " last 
day" varied from Monday to Saturday. What was done on last day 
will be told in the next chapter. 



SUMMER. 

The summer term began the first Monday in May. In various 
ways it was different from the winter term. The teacher was not a 
man this time, but a young woman. There were fewer scholars, as 
the big boys were kept out to work on the farm ; but Betsey Hall 
came trudging over from the farm each day with her dinner basket 
on her arm. Something besides food was in the basket now — that is, 
sewing ; for this was one thing taught in summer. 

Instead of the little white blanket which Betsey had worn in 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAVS-SL'MMER. lo 

winter for a head covering, she now had a sun bonnet made of 
copperas-colored cotton cloth over pasteboard. This pasteboard had 
been made at home l)y pasting a lot of old newspapers together, and 
it was apt to be rather limpsey. Her dress was of cotton, woven at 
home, in blue and white stripes, and v^ery simple in its make-up. 
I^iere were no buttons on it, and its only fastening was a cord at 
the neck. She wore shoes and stockings to-day, but later, when it 
was a little warmer, she went barefoot. 

Inside, tiie schoolroom had been trimmed with evergreens, and 
the wide mouth of the fireplace had been iilled with boughs of j)ine 
and laurel. 

The teacher had a pair of scissors dangling from her belt and used 
them to |)oint out the letters in the Speller when the A-B-C class 
gathered about her. A good many small children came in summer 
who could not get to school during the cold weather — occasionally 
one not over three years old. Such a little fellow would verv likely 
get to sleep, and the teacher would pick him uj) and carry him to the 
closet, where, on the bench with the girls' dinner baskets, he would 
have his naj) out. Hv and bv he would emerge and toddle to his 
place, quite bright after his sleep. 

Most of the little ones were dismissed early, and those who could 
handle a needle brought patchwork, and so had a much more com- 
fortable time of it than in winter. 

Older scholars, besides patchwork, would bring towels and table- 
cloths to hem. vSome of them worked samplers. Betsey made (jiiite 
a large samjiler this term — fourteen bv twenty inches. It was on 
green canvas, and the stitches were taken with yi-llow and red silk. 



20 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

First a checked border was made, then the alphabet in small letters 
was worked in across the top, next the figures and capitals, and under 
that a Scripture verse, " Remember thy Creator in the days of thy 
youth." Below that came her name and age, and, at the bottom, 
flowers in a flower-pot, a small tree, a lamb, a dog, and a lion. 

These samplers, when elaborate, were often framed, as was this 
one of Betsey's, which, after the school closed, was hung at home in 
the " best room " — that is, the parlor. As they had no indelible ink, 
all the clothing had to be marked by stitching, and the sampler 
showed how to make the letters. 

This term school closed every other Saturday. In most towns, 
when they began to shorten the number of school days in a week, 
they took off first Saturday afternoon ; but here the scholars had to 
come so far that it was thought best to give them a whole day every 
other week. On Friday or Saturday afternoon, whichever happened 
to be the last afternoon of the school week, the children studied the 
Catechism. It was a thin little book, divided into two parts. Part 
First was headed Historical ; Part Second was the Assembly Cate- 
chism. The historical part had nearly two hundred questions and 
answers, and at the top of each page were two small square pictures 
portraying some Bible scene, and below each was a reference to the 
story it illustrated. 

Part Second had in it one hundred and seven questions, largely 
doctrinal, beginning with " What is the chief end of man .?" 

Once a year, extending over three Sundays, the children said the 
Assembly Catechism in church. Just after the sermon, the boys on 
one side, the girls on the other, they formed in long parallel lines in 



OLD FASHIONKI) SCHOOL DAYS— SIMMER. 21 

the middle aisle, facing each other, all very prim and solemn and 
scared. The minister came down from the puljjit, overhung by the 
big sounding-board, and took his place in the deacons' seat, which 
ran along the front of the i)iili)it. 'I'he minister put the questions- 




li'ork for tin- hoy a/to school. 



and the children answered in turn. Thirst a boy, then a girl, would 
step forth from the lines, face the (juestioner, and give the answer^ 
and so it went down to the last little girl, whose frightened murmur 
as she responded could scarce be heard a yard away. 

On the first Sunday the children answered as far as the command- 
ments — forty-four questions; the second Sunday, through the com- 
mandments to the eightv-lirst question; and tin- thirtl time finished 
the book. Onlv those stood who could answer, and while the iirst 
day saw quite a crowd of children before the judpit, on the last the 
answers had become so difficult that only a few of the older ones 
remained. 



22 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

There were five days in the year which were recognized as holi- 
days : Fast Day, Independence Day, Training Day, Election Day, 
and Thanksgiving Day. The second was the only one which came 
within the bounds of either school term. It was celebrated rather 
quietly, and for the children was not especially different from any 
other week day when school did not keep, except that less work was 
given them to do. They had no torpedoes, firecrackers, or toy pistols, 
and they made little noise. 

Through all the hot weather, until the summer was nearly at an 
end, the school continued in session. On warm days the question, 
" Please, marm, may I go down and get a drink } " was a frequent 
one, and almost all day one or another of the children could be seen 
on their way to and from the pasture hollow where the brook ran. 
They had no cup to drink from, unless they shaped a big leaf for the 
purpose. Usually they would kneel down on the stones and dip 
their lips into the stream, and with none of the fear, which might 
disturb the moderns, of swallowing water snakes, frogs, pollywogs, 
or like creatures that were possibly swimming there. 

The teacher often allowed some of the scholars to go out and 
study under the trees " when they were good." Betsey often sat 
under the beeches in the grove behind the schoolhouse with book 
in hand. But it was harder to study there than indoors, there 
were so many things about to see. The temptation was to fall to 
dreaming, to watch the leaves fluttering above her head, to listen 
to the wind whispering through the boughs and to the faint murmur 
of the brook from the pasture hollow, to watch a wandering butter- 
fly, the squirrels in the trees, the birds, and the ants journeying up 



OLD-FASHIONKD SCHOOL DAYS— SIMMER. 23 

and down the fj:iay trunk at her back. Still it was very pleasant, 
and she went out as often as the teacher would let her. 

The teachers were all (juite strict and allowed small liberty, and 
their punishments for little misdemeanors were often severe. None 
of the teachers Betsey went to, however, were very harsh. Once, for 
making too much noise, she had to stand on the floor with her hands 
tied behind her; and again, for whispering, had to sit beside a great, 
coarse boy. These were the only serious punishments she ever re- 
ceived. 

One winter term two of the big girls persisted in looking out of 
the window, and Betsey was quite frightened when the master shook 
a warning finger at them and said he would j)ut them out through 
the window if they looked again. This teacher chewed tobacco, and 
had an odd way of holding his (juid between his lower lip and teeth, 
making a queer lump on his chin. The two big girls took revenge 
on him by rolling up wads of paper and imitating the master with his 
quid, and he could not very well punish them without making him- 
self ridiculous. The commonest form of punishment was feruling. 

The woman teacher was addressed as " Marm." When a scholar 
wished to speak to her he would not raise his hand to attract her 
attention, but would either go to her or speak right out. At close 
of school, as they passed out of the door, the boys turned to the 
teacher, hats in hand, and bowed, and the girls courtesicd, and each 
said " Good afternoon, marm," The children liked also to make their 
manners when they met some one on the road. Sometimes several 
of the little girls would join hands and stand by the roadside and 
make their manners to a person passing, and then, if that jxTson 



24 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

smiled down on them and said, "Nice children," they were much 
pleased. 

In summer, as in winter, the teacher boarded around. She was 
pretty sure to be young, usually taught a few years, then married, 
and taught no more. Her pay was from a dollar to a dollar and 
seventy-five cents a week. 

As the term drew to a close the scholars began to learn " pieces " 
to speak on last day. A good many learned hymns. Betty studied 




On the way home from school. 



this term a little poem of Mrs. Barbauld's called The Rose. They 
did not write compositions. 

Last day came this time on Thursday, in the middle of August. 
The sun rose clear and warm, the air was heavy and still, and it 
promised to be hot. All the children came dressed in their best, 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAVS-SU.NLMER. 25 

which made it seem like Sunday, and lent to the feeling of strange- 
ness and excitement which overhung the great occasion. 

Betsey started at about the usual time, but carried to-day, besides 
her dinner basket, her best shoes and stockings in her hand, for she 
must keep them from the dew which dampened the grass and from 
the dust of the roadway. As she walked along she repeated over and 
over aloud the poem she was to recite in the afternoon. When she 
got to the schoolhouse she wi])ed her feet on the wet grass and put 
on her shoes and stockings. 

The morning session was short, and mostly occupied by review- 
ing for the exercises of the afternoon. Those scholars who lived near 
enough then ran home, and the rest went to the nearest neighbor's 
and borrowed chairs, with which they hlled the open space back 
of the teacher's desk. On the day before they had given the room 
a great sweeping and scrubbing, and had torn down the dry ever- 
greens from the fireplace and about the windows and replaced them 
with fresh. Now they put finishing touches to the trim, did various 
little things, and finally were ready to eat dinner. Meantime great 
clouds had gathered in the west and had rolled up across the sky, 
and now the first big, threatening drops of the shower came j)elt- 
ing down. The children were obliged to eat their dinners indoors, 
and it was a mournful little company that gathered at the windows, 
as the storm increased, to munch their bread and butter and watch 
the lightning flash and the sheets of rain drive past. 

But just as they had concluded that '* Last day " was spoiled, 

the storm suddenly ceased, and the water-drops clinging to the 

leaves and grasses were set to dancing in the breeze that blew, and 
5 



26 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

sparkled in the sunlight, while the big thunderheads sank behind 
the eastern hilltops. Then the scholars thought nothing could have 
happened better. 

Those that had gone home returned, and presently school com- 
menced. The visitors began to arrive soon, and the room was 
pretty well crowded. The fathers and mothers were there, and 
some of the older brothers and sisters ; but the two persons of most 
importance were the " school committee-man " and the minister. 
There was one school committee-man in each district, whose duty 
it was to hire the teacher, to see that the schoolhouse was kept in 
repair, and attend to like matters. The scholars were quite awe- 
struck by the presence of so many of their elders, and felt they 
must behave their best, and their hearts beat fast at the thought of 
saying their lessons before so many. 

First, the little ones were called out on the floor to recite. 
They said the letters, spelled a few short words, counted a little, 
answered a few of the first questions in the Primer, and some of 
the first questions in the Catechism. Then the teacher asked a 
hst of questions about Bible characters, of which the following is a 
part : " Who was the strongest man } Who was the meekest man } 
Who was the wisest man } Who was the most patient man ? " 
Lastly, they were asked what town they lived in, the name of the 
minister, what State they lived in, the name of the Governor, what 
country they lived in, and the name of the President. 

The next class, besides reading and spelling and a few simple 
exercises in arithmetic, gave the abbreviations and the Roman nu- 
merals. 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAYS— SUMMER. 



27 



The oldest scholars, after readinir and spellin^^ recited what they 
had learned of the multiplication table, and irave the sounds of the 
letters, each recitinii: in turn. Here is the way it bei^an : " Lon^j a, 
name, lake; lon<r e, here, feet; long i, time, find; long o, note, fort ; 




Gtltiiii^ her lesson. 

long u, tune, gun ; long y, dry, defy. Short a, man, hat. Broad 
a, ball. tall. Flat a, ask, {)art. Diphthongs, o-i, o-y, voice, joy ; o-u, 
o-w, loud, now. B has only one sound, as in bite. C is always 
sounded like k or s, thus : c-a, ca ; c-e, ce ; c-i, ci ; c-o, ct) ; c-u, cu ; 
c-y, cy." So they would rattle it oil to the end of the aljjhabet. 
Another thing the oKler scholars learned in school and reciteil la^t 
day was the names of the books in the Bible. 

After this class finished, the children were called upon to speak 
their piece's. One after another the larger ones came out before the 



28 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

company and said the little hymns and poems they had learned. 
The boys bowed and the girls courtesied, once when they began and 
again when they finished. 

The teacher had made a rose of thin paper for Betty to hold 
while she spoke her piece, but, though she held it in her hand, in her 
excitement she forgot all about it. However, she spoke the piece 
very prettily. 

Meantime the writing books and the ciphering books and 
samplers had been passing from hand to hand among the visitors,, 
who examined them with considerable care. Now the teacher turned 
to the visitors, and said if there were any remarks to be made they 
would be glad to hear them. Three or four of the men got up one 
after the other, and each said he had been much pleased with the 
exercises. One man said, " You are nice children ; you done well." 
Another said, " You have answered some questions which I presume 
some of us older people present couldn't have answered." 

Lastly the minister rose. Save his mild voice all was very quiet 
in the little room. The children with folded hands sat Hstening, and 
the older people were attentive too. Through the open windows 
the wind came in a gentle current. Outside a multitude of insects 
mingled their voices in a continuous murmur, but among them, at 
intervals, came the strident, long-drawn note of a Cicada. The breeze 
made a light fluttering in the trees behind the building, and there, 
too, a wood bird was singing. By the roadside the visitors' teams 
were hitched, and, as the minutes drowsily sped, the children half 
consciously heard the horses stamping and nibbling at the bushes. 

The substance of the minister's remarks was that they should be 



OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL DAYS— SUMMER. 



29 



good children, should mind their parents, and not neglect their books 
in vacation, for, while "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," 
"all plav antl no work makes Jack a mere toy." At the close of 
the talk all bowed their heads, and the minister offered prayer. This 
ended the exercises of the day, and the visitors passed out. 

The scholars still remained seated, it was the custom of the 
woman teacher, at the close of her term, to j^ive the scholars some 
little present, and now was the time for distribution. The eyes of 
the children had wandered many times with curious interest to the 
little package which had lain on her table all the afternoon. The 
gifts it contained were simple and inexpensive, but they gave a 
great deal of pleasure. Some received a half yard of bright-colored 
ribbon, one would get a man of sugar, another a more substantial 
man of tin. Again, it would be a picture, or a sugar plum, or a stick 
of cinnamon, or a tiny illustrated story^ book costing a cent or two. 

Then each scholar, with his treasure, gathered up his books and 
other belongings and trudged off home. Betsey got her copy book 
and ciphering book and sampler from among those which had been 
passed about to show the visitors, her basket and bonnet from the 
closet, her Primer, Speller, Testament, and reading book, and her 
quills, plummet, ruler, and ink from her desk, and, thus loaded, passed 
through the schoolhouse door. Her folks had come over with a 
team and were talking with some of the neighbors. She climbetl 
in, and soon they jogged off toward home. 

Children and visitors had all gone. Only the teacher remained. 
She had closed the windows, and now sat with her elbow on the 
table and her head on her hand. Throuuh the door came the 



30 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



murmurous voices of the insects, the faint ripple of the brook over its 
stones in the pasture, the dull tinkle of a cowbell far off. 

In time a team came rattling along the highway and stopped 
before the schoolhouse. The teacher rose quickly, gathered up her 
few things, and went out. She lived six miles distant, and was now 
going home. Her father had driven over to visit the school, and had 
just been to her last boarding place to get the little hair trunk which 
was in the back part of the wagon. The teacher got in, the man 
clucked to the horse, and with the sun low in the western haze full 
in their faces, they followed the road along the level, and by its wind- 
ing, bush-lined course were soon hidden to view. 




The teachc7- mins; home. 



THE iMlD-CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1 840-1 850. 



\l N times of peace the changes wrought 
in the habits, manners, and institutions 
of a people are very gradual. Shreds 
and remnants of every custom which 
has had general acceptance linger long 
after that custom has in most quarters 
disappeared. In describing the New 
England school of the period Just pre- 
ceding the war of the rebellion, it is to 
be noted that in many communities 
there was little or no change from the 
schools of half a century before. What 
is here recounted is fairly characteristic 
of the majority of schools and neighborhoods, but it will not bear 
a too literal application to particular towns and villages. 

The school year still consisted of two terms, one in summer and 
the other in winter. As a rule, a man taught in winter and a wt)man 
in summer, and the teachers " boarded round." The custom of board- 
ing round was, however, less universal than formerl)', and was gradu- 
ally falling into disuse. Schoolbooks were becoming more varied 




A wintc-r mornim:;. 



32 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



and numerous, and were less stilted in style than in times past. Nor 
were they so solemnly religious as they had been. Instead, the 
books were inclined to be gently moralizing, arid never told a story 
without preaching a little sermon at the end, even if they did not 
pause now and then midway to give some proper advice. 

Perhaps the best way to give a clear idea of what the schools of 
the time were is to describe a typical one with some detail. The 
school I have in mind was in an outlying village of one of the old 
Massachusetts towns of the Connecticut Valley. The score of houses 
which made up the hamlet were scattered along a two-mile strip of 
meadow land which lay between a low mountain ridge on the east 
and the river on the west. Midway on the single north and south 
road stood the weather-worn little school building. A narrow, open 
yard, worn bare of grass for a space about the doorstep, separated it 
from the dusty road. At one end of the building a big apple tree 
partly shadowed it ; at the other was a lean-to shed where the wood 
for the fire was stored. 

Within, a narrow entry ran across the north side, completely filled 
in the middle by a great chimney. The boys kept their caps and 
wraps on the lines of pegs in the front entry, and in a closet back of 
the chimney, entered from the schoolroom, the girls kept theirs. 

The small, square main room had bare, plastered walls and ceiling, 
grimy with smoke and age. On each of the east, south, and west 
sides were two windows which looked out upon the meadows, 
orchards, and mountains. The chief feature of the north side of the 
room was the wide fireplace with its brick hearth. At one side of 
the fireplace stood a broom, and whenever the crackling fire snapped 



Till-: MID-CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850. 



33 




The road to school. 



out a coal on the floor the first boy who saw it was expected to jump 
u;) and brush it back. It was not always that the scholars would 
take tlie trouble to brush the coals back by usinij: the broom. A 
quicker method was to crush the fire out by stepping on it, and 
the boards about the hearth were not only blackened with many little 
hollows where the coals had fallen, but were also usually well strewn 
with tlie powdered charcoal resultin<2: from their being stepped on. 
Another feature of the north side of the room was a small black- 
board between the fireplace and the entrance, on which I lie big boys 
did their sums. 

Around the other three sides of the room, against the wall, ran a 

6 



34 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



continuous desk, accompanied by a backless bench well polished with 
use. To get to their places, or to leave them, the boys would sit 
down, lift their heels, and with a quick whirl swing them to the other 
side. The girls had two hinged openings in this seat on their side 
of the room, which could be lifted to allow them to pass in and out, 
but most of the girls preferred to whirl as the boys did. A part of 
the time the scholars eased themselves of the discomfort of their 
backless seats by turning about and using the edge of the desk as a 
support. Within the hollow square bounded by this outer desk and 
seat, on each of the three sides, was a movable bench with a back on 
which the smaller children sat facing the teacher. In the center of 
the room was the teacher's desk and a single stiff-backed wooden 
chair. 

The chief dignitary of the village was the " prudential committee- 
man." He hired the teacher ; he bought the water pail, the dipper, 
and the broom ; and he saw that the woodhouse was properly filled 
and the premises kept in repair. His position was not what the poet 
calls " a downy bed of ease," for he was the subject of much comment 
and criticism. It was thought he had too strong a tendency to hire 
one of his own daughters when he possessed an unmarried one 
sufficiently advanced in age and learning ; and, wherever the selection 
was made, the teacher he hired frequently failed to suit the com- 
munity. If, in such a case, the committee-man took sides with the 
teacher, the miniature war waxed quite fierce. Upon one occasion, 
in a quarrel over a teacher whom the committee-man would not 
turn off, hostilities were more than a year in duration. All but six 
scholars left the school, and the dissenters hired a teacher and had a 



THE MID-CKXTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850. 35 

school of their own in one of the dissenting farmers' little out-build- 
ings which had been used as a broom shop. 

It was the duty of the district committee to go after the teacher 
whom he hired, if tiiat person lived in a neighboring town. The 
committee-man rarel\- started soon enough to get his charge to the 
sciioolroom on time; and the scholars, who gathered at nine o'clock, 
would "train around and have a gay time" while they awaited the 
teacher's arrival. Sometimes the teacher, before beginning, had to 
be taken to the " examining committee" at the town center and his 
or her qualifications tested by sundry questions. In such a case the 
teacher might not arrive ready for duty until afternoon. 

We will supi)Ose that the first week in May has come, and that 
the district committee-man has brought the new schoolmarm. The 
teacher, he takes to the schoolhouse, but her trunk is carried to the 
committee-man's home, where it is to stay through the term. She is 
to board round, and it has already been decided where her stopping 
place for the first week shall be. Monday noon the children of that 
particular home take charge of her, and feel it a great honor to escort 
her to " their house " to dinner. The teacher's advent into a family 
was always the occasion of extra preparation in the way of food and 
"tidying up," and conversation became a more than ordinarily serious 
occupation. 

Boarding round, with its accompanying necessity of " visiting," 
change of quarters, and fretjuent making of new honu- acquaintances, 
was something of a hardship. The teacher found her quarters far 
from agreeable at times ; but there was no picking places. The best 
bedroom, to which she was consigned, was perhaps stuffy with t!ie 



36 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



gathered must of many months' unoccupancy, or the people were 
rough and slatternly in their habits, or the food was ill-cooked or 



* 


1 








Mfi^iflJ 


LiJL'iii 




t / ' 


' --fAj 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ihi 




V. .■.^,.*>^'. 


-- ■■<-t\ 




^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 


i^fci^^* ' ^M 




mmm^ 


^■■|M|fll8 


B 


Hi 




1 


I 



A hilhide schoolhoitse. 

scanty. I do not mean these things were the rule, but they were 
to the boarder round, to some extent, unavoidable. 

Schools kept from Monday morning till Saturday noon. On 
Saturday afternoons the teacher went to the committee-man's and 
did her washing. She stayed over Sunday and attended church with 
the family. Some week-day evening, after school, she would prob- 
ably again repair to the committee-man's to do her ironing. 

In winter the teacher in some sections found himself feasted the 
whole term through on fresh pork. Fresh pork was esteemed one 
of the most palatable and substantial dishes the farm produced, and, 
on the principle of giving the teacher the best, each family put off 
hog-kiUing until he came. His invitation, delivered by the chil- 
dren, would be : " Our folks are goin' to butcher next week, and 
want you to come there." Or an excuse would come in this form : 



THE MID-CKNITKY SCHOOLS. 1840-1850. 



37 



" Our folks want you to wait till week after next, 'cause we're goin' 
to kill a pi^- then." The master was heartily sick of pork long be- 
fore the winter was throuii;!!. 

Immediately after the morning session began the teacher read a 
selection from the Testament and offered a short extempore prayer. 
Children began to attend school, in summer, soon after they passed 
their third i)irth(lay. At first they had no books, and their chief 
effort was given lo sitting still. They were taught their letters at 
the school-mistress's knee, and perhaps she pointed them out with 
a pretty penknife. The children found that j)enknife wonderfully 
attractive, and it was a great happiness to handle it and look at it 
when the teacher lent it to them. 

Besides the letters, the teacher taught the smallest ones various 
little poems. There were "Mary had a little lamb," "Twinkle, twin- 
kle, little star," and 



" How doth the little 
busy bee 
Improve each shininjr 
hour." 

Then there were cer- 
tain jingles, which 
were not only poetry, 
but exercises in arith- 
metic as well. Fancy a 
little tot solemnly re- 
peating the following: 




Cnh/'v-)ii'n.u- dolls. 



38 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

" See me ; I am a little child 

Who goes each day to school ; 
And though I am but four years old, 
I'll prove I am no fool. 

" For I can count one, two, three, four, 
Say one and two make three ; 
Take one away, and two remain. 
As you may plainly see. 

" Twice one are two, twice two are four. 
And six is three times two ; 
Twice four are eight, twice five are ten; 
And more than this I do. 

" For I can say some pretty rhymes 
About the dog and cat ; 
And sing them very sweetly, too, 
And to keep time I spat. 

"And, more than all, I learn that God 
Made all things that I see ; 
He made the earth, he made the sky, 
He made both you and me." 

This chant was accompanied by appropriate gestures, such as count- 
ing on the fingers, pointing, and clapping. 

The rhymes and verses learned by the children were often re- 
peated in concert, and were one of the features of " examination 
day." Besides the moralizing, the arithmetical, and the story-telling 
verses, the children were taught hymns and short poems that were 
distinctly religious in nature. When the teacher's taste was musical, 
they had singing in school, and the virtues of the " pure and spark- 
ling water" were extolled in temperance songs. 








tv^ 


fi " ' 


Bjllj^B. 


.^%'^. 



THE MID CExNTl'RY SCHOOLS. 1840-1850. 3q 

By the time the smallest children had the alphabet learned thcv 
were sujiplied with a Webster's Speller. Later they had a Child's 
Guide, or a Vounii- Reader. These books contained some little 
stories and poems, and were illustrated with rude woodcuts. .After 
the I'^irst Reader the child advanced to an Intelligent Reader, and 
fmally to a Rhetorical Reader. These two books were not illus- 
tratetl. None of the schoolbooks had pictures on the covers, as 
later came to be the rule, but simply a stilT type-letterino- disjilayed 
on their gray or buff boards. The reading books were onlv used 
in the afternoon. Instead, there were several classes in the morn- 
ing which read from the New Testament. The Gospels and the 
Acts of the Apostles were the sections which they studied, and 
these they read straight through, skipping nothing but the tirst 
chapter of Matthew, which is mainly composed of the hard names 
of the patriarchs. 

The first book in mathematics was Colburn's Intellectual Arith- 
metic. Its first question was, " IIow many thumbs have you on 
both hands .^ " but in a few pages fractions were reached, and (|uite 
intricate problems. It was severe training, and the scholars all hated 
their Colburn's. After this " mental arithmetic " came a " written 
arithmetic," which was apparently supposed by educators to be more 
difficult than the former, but which the scholars found comparatively 
easy. The problems in this they did on their slates. 

Modern civilization decrees that the proper way to make era- 
sures from a slate is to have a bottle and rag. In earlier days, and 
those not very far removed, the natural method was almost uni- 
versal ; that is, the scholar spit on his slate, rubbed the moisture 



40 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



around with the tips of his fingers, then established a more vigor- 
ous friction with the ball of his thumb, and finally polished his slate 
off with the back of his sleeve. That done, h'e settled himself down 
to conquer fresh fields in the mathematical world. 

In the course of time the children began the study of Peter 
Parley's Geography. The book was small and square, and it had a 









^M 


%g 


^i 


^IhIhl 










^^^^^H 


^K'^'l 




M 


4 


1 


1 


^^^^IRf^^^^^^^l 


H 






ik 


J 


[^■k^i^|H 


K 




.M 


fel 




I^^^^Hk,'^- """^^b 


Br 








HkkJ^HJ 


^^^■|^M;;r ' ,W 


i 




«| 


IB 


bSB 




^^ 




■^ 


■ 


Hi 



A Saturday '. ■ / i i ' _ lis. 

number of pictures in it to give the child an idea of some of the 
strange peoples and curious animals that are to be found on the 
earth. For instance, there was a picture of a Chinaman with which 
the young student was sure to be impressed. His eyes were slanting, 
his hair was done up in a " pigtail " that hung down his back, he had 
a conical hat on his head and funny shoes on his feet. Across his 



THE MID CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850. 41 

shoulders he bore a wooden yoke from the ends of which were sus- 
pended by their tails long strings of rats. How could they eat such 
things? What a strange people the Chinese were! Among the 
small separate pictures of animals was one of the hippopotamus — oh ! 
so large and ugly ! — and one of the rhinoceros with a dreadful horn 
right on his nose. It is no wonder if the little girls shuddered when 
they looked at them. The first lesson on the first page of this 
geography was a })oem which started in these words : 

" The world is round, and, like a ball, 
Seems swinging in the air ; 
The sky extends around it all, 
And stars are shining there. 

" Water ant! land upon the face 
Of this wide world we see ; 
Earth is the dwelling place of man, 
But ships sail on the sea." 

The more advanced pupils studied Murray's Grammar, and found 
out what nouns, verbs, etc., were, and learned to parse blank verse. 
Then there was Peter Parley's History, in two volumes. \^olume I 
dealt with the New World, and Volume 1 1 began with Adam and 
the Garden of Eden, and told the story of the Old World. Only the 
first book was usually studied in the district school. 

Another little book to be mentioned was Watts on the Improve- 
ment of the Mind. This was a deep and serious essay on the 
methods and the desirability of mental improvement. It was studied 
by only the oldest scholars, and even they found much of it beyond 
their comprehension. 



42 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 




Doing ajithnutu examples on the blackboard. 



The times were sufficiently advanced so that the children now 
had " boughten writing books " instead of home-made ones, steel 
pens instead of quills, and in a meager way pencils instead of 
plummets. The writing books were square in shape, ruled inside, but 
had no printed copies at the top of the page. These the master had 
therefore to set. He was supposed to do this each night after 
school, but if he forgot it he had to set the copies when the writing 
hour came. Some pupils wrote faster than others, and the smart one 
who filled out his page and still had more time at once desired to 
inform the teacher of his progress and to get a new copy. The boy 
raised his hand, therefore, half rose in his seat, and nearly wrung his 
arm off in a frantic effort to get the teacher's immediate attention. 



THE MID-CENTL'RV SCHOOLS, 1840-1S30. 



43 



Some boys would even snaj) their linjj^ers, and clear their throats in 
the very hoarsest and most asthmatic manner of which they were 
capable. These violent methods of attractinij; the teacher's attention 
were, of course, not confined to the writing lesson. 

A common requirement among teachers was that each scholar 
should recite a verse of Scripture at the close of the afternoon session. 
Hence, when four o'clock aj)|)roached, Bibles were forthdrawn, and a 
diligent search began for short verses, and a hasty attempt made to 
fix the one singled out in the mind. There was little solemnity 
about this exercise ; rather, it was farcical and humorous. 

"John, your verse," says the teacher. Up pops the boy like a 
Jack-in-tiie-box, snaps out "Jesus wept," and with a grin drops into 
his seat again. 

" Pray without ceasing," " Rejoice evermore," " The Lord spake 
unto Moses, saying," are examples of the verses which found f^ivor 
in the children's minds. They had the merit of shortness, if no other. 
The boy was always serious when he rose, always rattled off the 
words verv fiist, and beamed with a never-fLiiling smile at the close of 
his performance. 

On one occasion a boy's verse ran, " With God all things are 
peculiar." 

" What.'^" said the teacher, "what was tb.at ?" The boy repeated 
his words. The teacher doubted their authenticity, and the boy, on 
the following Sunday, went to his original s(Hnce, which was a 
motto hung in the Sunday-school room at church, and found that 
the ancient text lettering had confused him. What it really said 
was, "With God all things are possible." 



44 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



There had been various changes in dress since the beginning of 
the century. Homespun had almost disappeared. Not many fami- 
lies could afford to buy " store clothes " for their boys, but cloth was 
bought ready woven, and was cut and made at home into the required 
garments. Economy was studied in making up clothing, and the 
mother was careful to cut the suit for the growing boy several sizes 
larger than his present stature demanded. The boy had reason to 
complain at first of the bagginess of his garments, but before they 
were worn out he was pretty sure to be disturbed because of their 
general tightness at the extremities. But this was the common lot 
of boys, and they might count themselves lucky if they were clothed 
in new store cloth, and not in something made over from the cast-off 
apparel of their elders. 

The boys' caps were homemade too, sometimes of broadcloth, 
sometimes of catskin or muskrat skin. Often a leather visor was 
fastened on in front. At the sides were earlaps with strings at the 
end. When in use the strings were tied under the chin ; at other 
times the earlaps were turned up at the side of the cap, and the 
strings tied over the top. 

Both boys and girls went to school barefoot in summer, but 
for special occasions had shoes. On the approach of cold weather 
the boys were sure to remind their parents that they needed a new 
pair of boots. These were rough-looking cowhides, into the tops 
of which they usually tucked their " pant legs." At parties or other 
places where the tucked-in style seemed out of place, the pants were 
drawn down on the outside of the bootlegs, where they showed an 
irritating and uncontrollable tendency to hitch themselves upward. 



THE MID CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850. 



45 



The boots were Imrdly wearable unless they were kept well greased, 
and even then the eontinual slupjjing around in snow and water 
made a series of hard wrinkles leather at the ankles that were par- 
ticularly unyielding on cold mornings. There was no right and left 
nonsense about their broad-soled, square-toed boots, and the careful 
boy took pains to change them to opposite feet with regularity ; 




he considered that the only way to keep them subdued and sym- 
metrical. 

The girls' dresses were of gingham in summer and of a fme- 
cheeked woolen in winter. They were very j)lain and simple in 
pattern, and were fastened down the back with hooks and eyes. 
The dresses were longer than are now in use, and with them a 
curious garment known as " pantalets " was worn. A pantalet was 
like a strai^xht sleeve fastened at the knee and extending downward 



46 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



to the ankles. In warm weather the girls wore gingham or colored 
calico sunbonnets, in winter quilted hoods, which were very com- 
fortable, often bright in color and gay with ribbons. They wore 
long plaided coats that almost swept the ground, with a wide cape 
at the top. The boys had overcoats, but they thought them effem- 
inate, and only wore them in the severest weather. Both boys and 
girls had striped knitted scarfs to wind about their necks, which 
they called " comforters." The shoes worn by the girls came barely 
up to their ankles, and were slight protection in snow-time. Their 
feet were " sopping " in winter a good share of the time, say those 
who wore them. Every child had a pair of mittens, usually red. 
Through the summer term the girls wore gingham aprons, or, 




THE MID CKNTIRV SCHOOLS, 184(^1850. 47 

in the case of one or two families esteemed "rich," black silk 
ones. 

Among: the most vivid recollections that grown-up people have 
of their school days are the memories of the punishments inilicted. 
What then stirred them to fear and trembling and anger now lies 
far off, mellowed by the haze of passing years, and though the 
echoes of the old feelings are many times awakened, in the main 
the punishments are like ej)isoiles in story-land, whicli wc think of 
as onlookers, not as actors. The crude roughness and the startling 
effects produced have lost their old-time tragedy, and often have 
turned humorous. 

" Spare the rod and spoil the child " was a Bible text which 
received the most literal acceptance both in theory and practice. 
Even the naturally mild-tempered man was an " old-fashioned " dis- 
ciplinarian when it came to teaching, and the naturally rough and 
coarse-grained man was as frightful as any ogre in a fairy tale. 

In summer, unless the teacher was an uncommonly poor one, 
or some of the scholars uncommonly wild and mischievous, the days 
mov^ed along very harmoniously and pleasantly. In winter, when 
the big boys came in, some of them men grown, who cared vastly 
more about having a good time than getting learning, an impor- 
tant requisite of the master was "government." He ruled his little 
emjiire, not with a rod of iron, but with a stout three-foot ruler, 
known as a " ferule," which was ([uite as effective. The really 
severe teacher had no hesitation in throwing this ruler at any child 
he saw misbehaving, and it is to be noted that he threw first and 
spoke afterward. W-ry likelv he would order tin- culj)rit to bring 



48 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

him the ferule he had cast at him, and when the boy came out on 
the floor would further punish him. Punishment by spatting the 
palm of the hand with a ruler was known as " feruling." The 
smarting of the blows was severe while the punishment lasted, but 
this was as nothing to a " thrashing." The boy to be thrashed was 
himself sent for the apple-tree twigs with which he v/as to be 
whipped. Poor fellow ! Whimpering, and blinded by the welling 




Out at little recess. 

tears, he slowly whittles off one after the other of the tough twigs. 
This task done, he drags his unwilling feet back to the schoolroom. 

" Take off your coat, sir ! " says the master. 

The school is hushed into terrified silence. The fire crackles in 
the wide fireplace, the wind whistles at the eaves, the boy's tears 
flow faster, and he stammers a plea for mercy. Then the whip 
hisses through the air, and blows fall thick and fast. The boy 
dances about the floor, and his shrill screams fill the schoolroom. 



THE MID CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850. 



49 



His mates are frightened and trembling, and the girls are crying. 
When the sobbing bov is sent to his place, whatever his misde- 
meanor may have been, the severity of the punishment has won 
him tiic symjxitliy of the whole school, and toward the master there 
are only feelings of fear and hate. As for the culprit, he in his 
heart vows vengeance, and longs for the day when he shall have 
the age and stature to thrash the teacher in return. 

Doubtless the whippings varied much in severity, and, unless 
the master was altogether brutal or angered, were tempered accord- 
ing to the size of the boy and the enormity of his offense. Nor 
were the boy's cries always a criterion of the amount of the hurt. 
It was manifestly for his interest to appear in such terrible distress 
as to rouse the master's j)ity, and with this in mind he to some 
extent gauged his cries. Nevertheless, the spectacle was not an 
edifving one, and ha|)pily the school thrashing as a method of 
separating the chalT from the wheat in boy nature is a thing of 
the past. 

The list of milder punishments was a varied one. If the master 
saw two boys whis])ering, he would, if circumstances favored, steal 
U])()n tlx-m from beliind and visit unexpected iitrilmtion upon them 
by catching them by the collars and cracking their heads together, 
l^'^requently an offender was ordered out on the floor to stand for a 
time by the master's desk, or he was sent to a corner with his face to 
the wall, or was asked to stand on one leg for a tinie. in certain cases 
he was made to hold one arm out at rigiit angles to his body — a very 
easy and simple thing to do for a short time, but fraugiit with j)ain- 
ful discomfort if long continued. Sometimes the punishment was 

8 



50 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



made doubly hard by forcing the scholar to support a book or other 
weight at the same time. When the arm began to sag, the teacher 
would inquire with feigned solicitude what. the trouble was, and 




A punishment. 

perhaps would give him a rap on his " crazy bone " with the ruler to 
encourage him to persevere. This process soon brought a child to 
tears, and then the teacher was apt to relent and send him to his 
seat. 

Making a girl sit with the boys, or a boy with the girls, was 
another punishment. The severity of this depended on the nature of 
the one punished. For the timid and bashful it was a terrible 
disgrace. 

Boxing ears, keeping in at recess or after school, and the confisca- 
tion of playthings and odds and ends which hindered the youthful 
mind in its pursuit of knowledge, were mild visitations of the law 
that only need mention. Jackknives frequently figured among the 



Till-: MID-CENTURY SCHOOLS. 1840 -1850. 5 I 

contraband articles locked in the teacher's desk ; for what hoy can 
behold a piece of soft j)ine wood in any shape whatever without 
(lesirinir to whittle it ? The desks offered an invitinj^ surflice on 
which the l)oy itched to carve his initials, and that done, he was 
inspired to put a few added touches and simple designs on the rest of 
the space within reach. While the teacher stored his beloved jack- 
knife he still had recourse to his j)encils, and with these could make 
in the soft wood \arious indentations and markin<i;s pleasing- to his 
soul. 

Some of the punishments produced very striking spectacular 
effects to which the present-day mind would feel quite averse. 
Fancy the sight of a boy and girl guilty of some misdemeanor 
standing in the teacher's heavy armchair, the girl wearing the boy's 
hat and the boy adorned with the girl's sunbonnet. B(Jth are red- 
faced and tearful with mortified pride. They preserve a precarious 
balance on their narrow footing with difficulty, and everv movement 
of one causes the other to grasp and clutch to prevent inglorious 
downfall. 

To sit on the end of a ruler, which the teacher presently kncjcked 
from under the boy, was considered by some pedagogues an effective 
punishment. One teacher used to have the offending bov bend over 
with his head under the table. Then the teacher whacked the culprit 
from behind with his heavw ruler, and sent him shooting under the 
table and sprawling across the floor. .Vmong the most ingenious and 
uncomfortable in the varied list of punishments was the fitting a cut 
from a green twig, partially split, to the offender's nose. In cases of 
lying, this rude pair of pinchers was attached to the scholar's tongue. 



52 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



As an example of savagery we will mention a teacher who 
threatened upon occasion to cut off the children's ears. Imagine the 
whole school listening with breathless and open-eyed horror while 
the master, before some little girl, is explaining the process of ear- 
cutting, and at the same time whetting his knife on his stout boot. 
He would go so far as to rub the back of the blade along the child's 
ears. The scholars soon saw he was not to be believed, but the 
threat was too frightful to altogether lose its dread, however often 
repeated. 

In describing the schoolroom interior, only one chair was men- 
tioned ; but there was another one which had long since seen its best 
days and was now minus its back. On it the boy who did not learn 
his lessons was sometimes required to sit with a fool's cap on his 
head. This treatment was expected not only to shame the boy, but 
to serve as a warning example to the school. His cap was usually 
improvised by the teacher out of a sheet of white paper or even a 
newspaper. Some, however, had a fool's cap ready made. One 
teacher's was particularly elaborate. It had a tassel on top and 
tassels at each of the three corners below, and on its front was painted 
the word " Dunce " in large capitals. 

The games of the children were much the same as those of earlier 
days. In winter there was a good deal of rough skirmishing among 
the boys, snowballing and ducking each other when chance offered. 
The small children at times fared hardly, and once in a while a girl 
had a severe experience when her mates took a notion to wrap her 
in her long cloak and bury her in a snowdrift. As soon as the 
burying was accomplished the buryers would run away, and the 



THE MIU-CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850 



53 



buried would struf^gle out half suffocated, and l)edraggled with snow 
from head to foot. 

On stormy winter days, when the seiiolars all brought their 
dinners and the teacher was not there, the excited racing and tearing 
around that they did in the little room at noon gave a vivid though 
unconscious representation of Babel and Bedlam. At the same 
time there was a good deal of running in and out, and the floor by 
schooltime was mottled all over with snow and water. 

Sliding was in order when there was a crust on the snow. Tiie 
sleds were great homemade affairs that three or four could sit on if 
need be. Sleds were usually shod with hard-wood runners, but some 




The school takes a hoat-ride. 



54 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



boys went to the blacksmith's and had their sleds fitted with runners 
of iron. The boy owner of a sled was expected, on the down-hill 
trips, to sit behind and steer. With his square-toed boot grating 
along behind he could make the sled go just where he pleased. In 




A holiday. Playing at gypsies. 

good sliding weather boot-toes disappeared wonderfully fast, and he 
was a lucky fellow whose footwear did not begin to gape at the 
extremities before spring. Presently some genius invented a copper- 
toed boot, which no doubt " filled a long-felt want," for the inventor 
made a fortune by it. 

In the middle of each school session came recess. First the 
girls went out for a quarter of an hour, and when they were called 
in the boys went out for the same length of time. Railroads were 
beginning to be built, but through the village I write of the old 
stages still ran. When the clatter and rumble of their approach 



THE MID-CENTURY SCHOOLS, 1840-1850. 55 

was heard the eyes of the children were sure to turn toward the 
windows in the hope of catching a fleetin<i; jrHmpse of the big 
coach as it dashed past. It was a great treat to be out at recess 
when it went by. Vet tlic children were a little afraid of it ; the 
coach was so large, and, drawn by its four horses, it thundered past 
so swiftly. It was an impressive sight, and to the child the pas- 
sengers seemed superior beings, and the whole thing a vivid repre- 
sentation of power and of the mystery and vastness of the outside 
world. 




This man has 
a stick and is 

goin^ to lick him. 



A drawing by one of the school children. 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL OF TO-DAY. 




/;/. the meadcnv at recess. 



T was in the last quarter of the century 
that Charley Smithson began to go to 
school. The little brick schoolhouse 
was a five minutes' walk distant, if 
he went straight there from home. 
Charley began to go to school before 
he was quite four years old, and he 
remembers now only a bit here and 
there of what happened on those first 
days. There was his mother, who always brushed his hair and 
slicked him up before he started, and who was always careful 
that he should start on time, and who, when he told her of the 
bad words some of the big boys used, said, "Those are not nice, 
and you won't use them if they do — will you } " And he looked 
up into her face and replied with an honest " No." 

The small children were sent more to relieve their mothers than 
for study, and for the first year Charley had not much to do. He 
came out on the floor twice each day and learned his letters from 
some big white cards that had pictures on them ; he listened to the 
others, and he was allowed to play with a fascinating counting- 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL OF TO-DAY. 



57 



frame made of wires strung with hluc, black, yellow, and green 
wooden beads. Sometimes the teacher let him lay down on the 
bench, with her shawl under his head for a pillow, and o;o to sleep ; 
and once he fell oft on the tloor, and the shock made him awake 
with a sudden start. 

There were now three terms in the school year — a long winter 
term of twelve weeks, and a spring and a fall term of ten weeks 
each. It was so much the rule that the teacher shouKl be a woman 
that a man teacher in a primary school was looked upon as a good 
deal of a curiosity. In all the time that Charley attended the dis- 
trict school he only had one man teacher, and he taught only one 
winter term. Saturday had become a full holiday. " Boarding 
round " for the teacher had long ago been discontinued, and was 
now thought a "curious custom of the olden times." Teachers, as 
a rule, were picked from among the girls or women of the home 
neighborhood. They were paid five or six dollars a week. In case 
a teacher came from abroad, she boarded at a neighbor's in the 
schoolhouse vicinity at 
a weekly cost of two, 
two and a half, or pos- 
sibly three dollars. The 
teacher, for the time be- 
ing, was adopted as one 
of the familv at her 
boarding place. She 
would probablv keep 

her own bedroom in 
9 




58 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

order and help with the household work, at least to the extent of 
wiping the breakfast and supper dishes ; and on such noons as the 
rest of the folks were gone she got dinner ^for the hired man. 

The schoolhouse of the village of Riverbend was more roomy 
than those of most hamlets. It was also more substantially built, 
for it was only here and there that a community possessed a brick 
edifice. Little wooden buildings, painted white, were the rule. 
Riverbend schoolhouse stood on a low hill that was hardly more 
than a terrace. The little yard was hemmed in on three sides by 
a high and slivery board fence. In front was an open and white- 
painted rail fence that, in its first days, had a good deal of style 
about it ; but the boys rode that off in a very short time, and, 
indeed, it was not long before rails, posts, and all were gone. The 
slivery board fence withstood the ravages of time and the boys 
much longer. But successive climbing-overs, whackings, and the 
demand for see-saw boards made it disappear piecemeal, until there 
was only one knotty cedar post left, to which the committee-man 
hitched his horse when he called. 

Among the advantages of having the school building of brick in- 
stead of wood was the fact that its outer walls furnished an excellent 
surface to sharpen slate pencils on. Once in a while there came a 
teacher to whose oesthetic eye the gray blotches with which the chil- 
dren decorated the bricks about the entrance were not pleasing. 
Word of command was thereupon passed that the scholars should do 
their penciK sharpening instead on the heavy stone step before the 
door. 

At a back corner of the school yard stood a rickety little building 




.■i )l c'XtHXf JOI i'llll^ lill'C 



OF TO-DAY. 50 

that service! for a wood shed. It was unpainted and battered, and 
had a decrepit tendency to lean sideways, and always had a look of 
great age. 

Indoors was a long entry, and beyond that the main room, the 
back of which was occupied by sixteen box desks. While Charley 
Smithson went to school the number of scholars was never so large 
but that each could have a whole desk to himself The scholars left 
the district school younger than formerly to attend the grammar and 
high schools at the center. The rear seats in the room, which were 
monopolized by the largest and oldest scholars, were thought the 
most desirable ones. There was only a straight-up wall for a back, 
and the wind came in rather too freely at the cracks on cold days, 
but the remoteness from the teacher and the all-encompassing view 
of the room the position afforded were no doubt sufficient com- 
pensations. 

In the open space in front of the desks were the teacher's table, 
two chairs, and the box stove, which sent a long reach of rusty pipe 
across the room. On the wall behind the teacher's desk was a long 
blackboard, and there were other blackboards between the north and 
south windows. Beneath these last, against the wall, ran a bench, on 
which the little scholars stood when they were at the board, and 
whieii was liberally tattooed with imprints from the nails in the 
bottoms of their shoes. 

The walls of the room were adorned with a geometricallv figured 
paper that inclined to brownness and melancholy in its general tone. 
In places it had started to crack off, and in one or two spots was 
stained by leaks from the roof The woodwork of the walls and 



6o 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



doors was painted yellow and stained to represent polished wood. 
The desks and benches were painted green — all except the tops of the 
desks, which were white. These soft pine desk-tops offered facilities 
for hand carving and original decoration, which had inspired the 
pupils to do a good deal of work on their once fair surface with their 
jackknives and pencils. It was on the boys' side that the desks were 




The Riverbend schoolhotise. 



most energetically cut up, the girls' genius running more, apparently, 
to mild pencilings. 

In the middle of the ceiling was a small square hole with a little 
door fitted to it, that was known as " the ventilator." Originally 
there was a string attached to it by which it could be worked from 
below. However, strings are by nature perishable, and presently that 
string was no more. After that the boys, when they happened to 
think of it, would clamber up the unfinished wall in the entry and 



OF TO-DAY. 



6l 



pick a precarious way alonir the 
dark and still more unfinished 
loft and open the ventilator, or 
shut it, as the case might be. 
At the same time they usu- 
ally called down a few remarks 
through the hole to the other 
scholars and threw some bits of 
plastering at them. After a lit- 
tle, having properly adjusted the 
ventilator and thus insured the 
health of the school, the boys 
descended, and for some time 
thereafter occuj)ied themselves 
in freeing their clothes from the 
dust and cobwebs they had 
gathered. 

In the way of art the school- 
room had three or four small chromos ; in the way of inspiration, a 
dark portrait of Abraham Lincoln in a still darker frame. In the 
way of helps there was a somewhat antiquated wall map of the 
United States, and on the teacher's desk a small globe. The teach- 
er's desk, by the way, was quite modern. It was of black walnut, 
and it had a green oilcloth cover on its lid and a pretty balustrade 
at the back. The scholars admired it very much when it was first 
j)ut in. Of course, use and age made it totter on its legs, and from 
time to time it was found necessary that it should undergo a course 




The bov 7vho makes the fire. 



62 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of gluings and wirings. These were administered by a village 
farmer. Many of the farmers numbered carpentering among their 
accomplishments, but this particular person, by. reason of his special 
attainments, might fairly be designated the community's prize tink- 
erer. He could patch the roof, he could clean the stovepipe. He 
was appealed to when the door wouldn't lock, and he was appealed 
to when it wouldn't unlock. When the paint wore off the black- 
board, he put on fresh. When a window light was broken, he got 
a new one and came down some evening with his putty, tools, and 
a lantern and put it in. He even took the clock in hand when it 
proved refractory. In short, if anything was the matter, or the 
teacher at any time was inspired with a new idea in the schoolroom 
economy, he was forthwith sent for. 

In the corner of the room next to the stove was a big wood-box, 
unpainted and much battered, which, like most things in the world, 
came to pieces oftener than seemed strictly necessary. The stove, 
too, had its failings. There were days when it smoked, and at times 
its actions not only puzzled the scholars and the teacher, but the 
village carpenter as well. However, he would examine the stove 
some evening after school, while he improved the opportunity to at 
the same time eat an apple. He would see that the joints in the 
long pipe were all right, and adjust the wires attached to the ceiling 
by which it was suspended. He might even bring a ladder from 
home, climb the schoolhouse roof, and look down the chimney. 
After that the stove, if it had any conscience whatever, probably be- 
haved better. 

One of the boys among the pupils held the office of fire-tender 



OF TO-DAY 



63 



4,' 




MltlLm\ 


m 

1 


1 

. if . 


Hu^Li^Jsr 


m 


^^%i»- 



and Hoor-sweeper rio^ht through the term. He came early mornings 
to start the fire and have the room well warmed by school time, 
and once or twice a week he swept the floor. Vov this work he 
received one dollar at the end of the term, or possibly two dollars 
for a winter term. Not every boy had the genius to make the fire 
go well, for the ashes had to be poked just about right to make 
the draft good, and the stove door was broken in two pieces, and 
it required care to atljust it so it would in efiect be wht)le and stay 
whole. Those hard-wood fires could be made tremendously hot 
upon occasion. There were instances when a boy suffering for 
amusement would load the stove as full of wood, as it would hold 



64 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



just before school time, that he might have the joy of witnessing the 
teacher's consternation when she came in and school began. Yes, 
the teacher observed the heat and the baked- condition of the air, 
and sought out the boy who was answerable for the crime. She 
told him that, as long as he had such a liking for heat, perhaps he 
would be glad to stand by the stove and enjoy it. That was as 
good as a command, and he was soon perspiring and repenting at 
the side of the stove. But he was a gritty fellow, and when, just 
before recess, the teacher asked how he liked it, he said, " First 
rate." 

" Oh, well," was the teacher's response, " if you enjoy it so very 
much, you may spend your recess, too, here by the stove." 

Then the boy saw the unwisdom of his reply, but the sentence 
was passed, and there was no help for it. That particular boy made 
no more hot fires. 



^Z?Spw 




A game of Fox and Geese. 



OF TO-DAY. 65 

On the bench by the woodbox was set the water pail. Be- 
side it was the drinkinf^ utensil, sometimes a tin cup, sometimes a 
glass tumbler, and for one while a little custard cup. It was aston- 
ishing how many times a scholar could drink that custard cup full 
when he made the attempt. The small boy in the front seat would 
drink as much as he could hold, and then turn around and watch 
the progress of the water pail to observe if any one could exceed 
him. If the pail-bearer had a grudge against any particular one, or 
was humorously inclined, he might snatch the cup away before the 
drinker had taken more than a mouthful or two, or would give 
the cup a gentle but sudden tilt that inundated the drinker in a 
small way. The office of water-passer seemed to be quite desira- 
ble, and " May I pass the water ? " was a question which recjuircd 
frequent answer from the teacher. The water was brought from tlie 
nearest neighbor's. A big boy could get it alone, but usually two 
went to carry the pail. In the interregnums between the wearing 
out of one pail and the getting a new one the scholars all raced 
over to " Uncle Elijah's " each recess to refresh themselves at the 
tub of running spring water which stood at his back door. 

The clock has been mentioned. That was a recent innovation. 
For many years after the reign of the hourglass and sundial the 
teachers had been accustomed to carry watches, but a schoolroom 
clock was a very recent idea. This one was bought by a subscrip- 
tion raised by the scholars among their respective parents, and it 
was fastened to the wall over one of the blackboards, where the 
scholars could note how time flew, though it must be confessed 
they usually thought time went pretty slowly. 



66 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



Another village subscription supplied the schoolroom with a 
number of lamps, which, with their shining tin reflectors, had been 
fastened up at intervals along the walls. These saved the trouble 
of bringing from the homes lamps and lanterns for illuminating 
purposes every time the villagers gathered for a lyceum, or a Christ- 
mas tree, or an evening prayer-meeting. 

School began at nine o'clock, with reading a chapter from the 
New Testament. The scholars read in turn two verses each as long 
as the chapter lasted, and then put their arms on the desks, bowed 
their heads on them, and with the teacher repeated the Lord's 
Prayer in concert. Next came the clatter of getting out books 

and other work- 
ing apparatus, 
and the asking 
of questions and 
making requests 
of the teacher. 
. In a few minutes 

■ ■ k* ' i^l^H. ''i^^ they had settled 

— .-SU9^K 'Hi ': Flfeltai^B down to their 

^:^* ^""^'-^ aBtaMi»viy.»sB*i^M^^ tasks, and the 

teacher began call- 
ing classes. The 
A-B-C class was 
called first, then the class in the First Reader, then the class in the 
Second Reader, and so on. The teacher had on her desk a little 
bronze bell with a wooden handle, which she tinkled to call and 





Staiti>ig the fife 



OF TO-DAY. 



67 




dismiss the classes. Each class was expected to stand in a straight 
line, toeing a certain crack in the lienor which possessed greater merits 
for a toe-line than its fellows in that it had more width. 

As the fore- 
noon wore on, 
the smallest chil- 
dren were allowed 
to go out for 
what was called 
the " little recess," 
provided it was 
summer time. 
Just how they 
amused them- 
selves It IS not 

easy to say, for the youngest children manage to have a very good 
time with the very simplest of accessories. North and east of the 
schoolhouse were apple orchards, where the scholars were privileged 
to help themselves to such fruit as they found lying on the ground. 
Just outside the school yard was a great maple, and down the road 
a short distance was another nearly as large. In the spring these 
trees dropped (juantities of their winged seeds into the grass. If 
you laid them on the hard dirt and stepped on them just right 
they would burst with a faint pop. .V child dearly loves a pop, 
be it great or small, and will expend a good deal of time and inge- 
nuity devising means whereby he can make things pop. One 
bov in the school was so oro^anized that he ct)uld throw his thumbs 



68 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

out of joint, at the same time producing a quite perceptible crack- 
ing sound. He was looked up to as an authority and genius in 
the matter of poppings and crackings. He .could also, by opening 
his mouth and rapping on his head with his knuckles, produce a 
dubious and hollow sound that would make one think his head 
was nearly empty. Perhaps it was ! 

A paper bag blown full of air and crushed made a dehghtfuUy 
loud explosion, but these bags seldom found their way to the school- 
house. The best poppers within reach were large leaves, which were 
laid across a circle made by the thumb and forefinger of the left 
hand and slapped with the palm of the right. The girls could make 
very pretty wreaths of the maple leaves, weaving them together by 
means of their long stems. Dandehons in the season were a source 
of amusement. " I'm going to see whether my mother wants me or 
not," says Jenny. She draws in a full breath and blows very hard at 
the white dandelion head held before her pursed lips. If all the 
seeds are blown away, she knows her mother does want her ; but if 
any remain, it is settled that she is not then needed. The long, 
hollow dandelion's stems, if held in the mouth and split slowly with 
the tongue, curled in two very neat and tight rolls. When shaken 
out, these made spirals that, hung over the ears, made quite enticing 
earrings. 

Another useful flower was the buttercup. It was an excellent 
medium by which to determine the important question whether 
one loved butter or not. Just hold it under Jenny's or Johnny's 
chin, and if you see a yellow reflection from its burnished petals there 
is a sure sign that he or she loves butter. 



OF TO-DAY. 69 

Beside the road, near by, were some great coarse burdock plants. 
The green and purple burs could be stuck together into very neat 
baskets. Then there was a small dooryard plant, whose round, Hat 
seeds were called by the children " cheeses," and which were con- 
sidered very good eating. Sorrel leaves and clover blossoms were 
other sources of food supply. 

Back of the schoolhouse was a wide meadow where the children 
out at " little recess" chased the butterflies with their straw hats, and 
gathered bouquets of the flowers that grew there. The best thing of 
all, anywhere near, was a little brook that ran along the borders of 
the meadow. There were endless possibilities of fun in that bit of 
water. You could paddle in it, you could sail things on it, you could 
wet up your mud pies there, and you could build a dam that would 
make it overflow its banks. In winter, if the season favored, the 
brook filled two or three hollows below, which, when frozen over, 
made excellent skating ground. The scholars were often on it before 
the ice was fairly safe. There was a pleasurable excitement to the 
venturesome ones in sliding on a " bender." A bender was made by 
sliding across weak ice which cracked as you slid. The longer the 
sliding was continued the more the ice sagged beneath each passing 
weight, and the more it bent the greater waxed the excitement. 
Finally some one broke through and got his feet wet, and then the 
crowd all went up to the schoolhouse satisfied. 

In warm weather, when the whole school came out for the " big 
recess," the favorite game was ball. This was more particularly 
a boy's game, but the girls played too, sometimes. When the grass 
was cut they liked to have their ball game in the meadow, but for the 



70 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 




The class in geography 



most part they contented themselves with the dusty roadway. Play- 
ing horse was in high esteem, and at times even the charms of the 
ball game paled before the delights of racing, and every child carried 
around ten or fifteen feet of string in his or her pocket. There were 
all kinds of horses, from " Stick-in-the-Mud " to " Maud S," from the 
trained circus-horse to the wild horses of the plains. The scholars 
drove each other to school and they drove each other home, and 
raced at every opportunity between whiles. 

" Jail " was another game played. In this the woodhouse served 
as a prison, and the jailor caught the prisoners running, and in 
imagination he shut them up there ; but there was no door, and it was 



OF TO-DAY. 71 

necessary that those cau,u:ht should agree not to break out. " Bear" 
was played in something the same way. The woodhouse was the 
bear's den, and from there he issued forth and captured the others. 
In the fall, great piles of fallen leaves were raked together and the 
" bear " was covered in them. The school gathered about the heap, 
and then the "bear" sprang forthwith terrible growls and a grand 
scattering of leaves and chased whichever of the children came 
handiest. 

in winter, besides sliding and skating, there was a good deal of 
desultory snowballing. Some- 
times the snowballing went far 
beyond the bounds of gentleness 
or mischief, and the white mis- 
siles were hurled in swift an- 
ger, and there were fights, and 
faces were washed and ducked 
in the snowbanks. This was 
not a serious matter to the big 
boys, but the little fellows had 
some hard experiences. Let 
some great rough boy catch a 
little one and proceed to jam 
him into some drift, or let him 
chase the small one with a 
threatening snowball ; there 
will be few occasions in all 
the trembling, gasping little sh,ir/^.;,ing his shu pnu-n. 




'JZ 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



fellow's after-life when he will suffer such terror. When Charley 
Smithson first went to school there was one big Irish boy by the 
name of Jim Londergrass who acted as a protector to the small 
children. He was a most good-natured fellow, and he would allow 
the boys to throw snow at him and knock him about as much as 




The class in the fijth Reader. 

they pleased ; but let any of them be rough with a little one, and 
they heard from him very quickly. Jim left school in a year or two 
and went away to work. Charley has never heard from him since, 
but Jim has always been treasured in his memory as a true knight 
and hero. 

At times the boys divided into sides and had pitched battles 



OF TO-DAY. ~, 

with their snowballs. Once they built a snow fort and i)lanned 
for a tiirht that was to be particularly grand. Some of the boys 
prepared frozen snowballs for the occasion. Luckily, a thaw set 
in which laid the lort in ruins, and this desperate battle was not 
fought. 

After the morning recess the several classes in arithmetic re- 
cited. All but the very highest schoolbooks were illustrated tjuite 
fully, even the arithmetics ; and each book had a picture on its 
board covers. The scholars, when reciting in mathematics, a j)art 
of the time stood in line and answered questions and repeated 
rules, and a part of the time "did examples on the board." 

There was one teacher who kept Charley Smithson on the 
multiplication table a whole term, in spite of the liict that he 
told her he was much beyond that. He got so he could say it 
over frontward and backward, beginning at either end or in the 
middle, and he frequently covered one of the small blackboards 
with it written out, from 2X1 = 2 to 12 X i- = i44- 

Charley's most serious trouble with arithmetic came when he 
met with long division. For several days he studied the new 
problems and attempted them on his slate, but tiiey seemed hope- 
lessly entangled. A boy from a neighboring town visited school 
about that time, and, though no older than Charle\', it was said 
he could do examples in long dixision. Charlev regarded him as a 
prodigv, and sank in deeper gloom. But one day light burst on his 
mind, and after that he could only wontler what it was that had 
puz/.led hiin. 

Sometimes the whole school joined in an arithmetic exercise. 



74 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 




The Pr 



The teacher would say, "Add two and two; multiply by four; take 
away six ; divide by five," etc., and after a while ask, " Now, how 
many of you have the answer ? " 

Up would go the hands of those who had been able to follow 
the processes, or thought they had, and the teacher would call upon 
some one for the answer. This exercise was considered very ex- 
citing and interesting. 

The afternoon began with another hearing of the reading classes ; 
then followed the class in grammar, one in history, and the after- 
noon closed with the hearing of the geography classes. In the 
geography lessons they often drew maps on the boards. Some- 



OF TO-DAY. 



75 



times they drew them ofif-haiul, and sometimes they used straight- 
lined diagrams to help them make what they drew more like the 
real things. 

When Charley got his first new geography book, and the class 
was organized, he went at the study with great energy. On the 
morning of the day they were to recite the first lesson he informed 
the teacher that he had stuihed his geography over five times the 
night before. The teacher rewarded this assiduity by letting him 
stand at the head of the class, although he was one of its smallest 
members ; but, to his surprise, in spite of all his studying, not a 
single question could he answer. He had simply read the words 




Schoolroom dt'coriitioii. 



^6 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of his lesson, and had not attempted to fix in his mind the ideas. 
Next day, from a humhle position at the foot of the class, he did 
much better. 

A quarter of an hour before the morning recess the writing 
books, which the teacher kept in her desk, were distributed, and 
the scholars got out their pens and uncorked their ink bottles, and 
proceeded to copy line after line of the mottoes at the head of each 
page. The smallest scholars exercised their ingenuity in making 
straight and curved lines with a lead pencil, or in tracing over the 
blue lines of printed copy, while the conscientious older ones gave 
their minds to putting in the flourishes and the shading just right. 
Meanwhile the teacher walked about and kept lead pencils sharp- 
ened, gave advice as to what had best be done when a bad blot 
was made, or a page filled out ahead of time, and now and then 
sat down by a scholar and showed just how that particular bit 
should be written. The teacher usually had the children sit in a 
certain posture, and tried to have them take an easier position with 
their fingers than the stubby grip on pen or pencil that seemed to 
come natural. 

Occasionally drawing was taught in the school, and each scholar 
had a brown-leaved drawing book of the same oblong shape as the 
writing books. On each leaf, at one side, were patterns to copy, 
with some printed matter explaining how it was done. First came 
straight lines and squares and circles, and gradually more compli- 
cated forms, solid bodies, vases, and flowers. In the books Charley 
studied, the final masterpiece was a bit of potato top in blossom. 
Potato plants he had always thought very homely as he saw them 



OF TO DAY. -j-j 

gro\vin<T in the fields, but here it seemed really a thing of 
beauty. 

Many of the teachers had a few moments of gymnastics in 
school each session. In these the scholars stood by their desks to 
go throutrh the various movements. In the parts where there was 
stamping or hand-clapping considerable enthusiasm was aroused in 




A tirnik fiviii a stnani in l/if n'ooi/s on Ihc way honi,- j'lom schooL 



seeing how much noise could be made. In the bendings baekw;jrd, 
forward, or sideways there was always interest in determining just 
how far one could go, even though it endangered one's ecjuilib- 
rium, and in the motions which called for a clenched fist there 
were those whose imaginations were stimulated to fancving them- 



78 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

selves engaged in a pugilistic encounter. Such were particularly- 
exhilarated when their fists came into semi-accidental encounter 
with a neighbor. 

Singing found frequent place in the school exercises when the 
teacher was herself gifted in that way. Gospel Hymns was the 
favorite book for selections on such occasions. Whatever the mu- 
sical lacks of the performance were, the volume of sound could 
always be depended on to be fully up to the mark, when the song 
had a lively and easily-caught movement. 

Teachers sometimes read to the scholars a little each day, or for 
an hour or so on Friday afternoons. One of Charley's teachers 
read them an exciting book about Indians and hunters, and for that 
reason Charley thought her about the best teacher that ever was. 
The book was so fascinating that the scholars would gladly stay in 
at recess to hear it read. 

Punishments, as a whole, had become much milder than in the 
old days, and many teachers got along without any punishments 
that involved bodily pain or made the child a spectacle of supposed 
shame to his fellows. " Thrashings " were no more, but once in a 
great while a teacher would resort to feruling. The front seats and 
standing room on the floor were reserved for those who misbehaved, 
and there were occasions when it seemed necessary to keep a child 
in at recess or after school. 

There was a great difference in teachers. Some were in earnest 
and did careful, faithful work, but occasionally there was one who 
was careless, and more interested in her own ease than in the 
scholars' progress. But an extreme case was not apt to stay long. 



OF TO DAY. 



79 



The scholars were sure to report at home what the teacher did and 
said, and when the tide of pubHc sentiment set strongly against her 
she had to leave. 

In dress, these country children, being of the j)resent, need not 
be described in detail. Garments in color and pattern and material 
were much more varied than in times past. Many of the boys and 
some of the girls inherited their elders' outgrown or worn-out clothes, 
which needed only a little adjusting or making over to ht them 
for further duty. At one time the boys used to wear c()p{)er-toed 
and red-topped boots in the winter, but, later, shoes and rubbers came 
into more general use. In summer most of the boys wxMit barefoot, 
and in the dryest times it was agreeable to the boy to follow along 
the middle of the road on his way to school, stubbing up as big a 
cloud of dust as he knew how. Once in a while a girl went bare- 
foot, but that was not the rule. 

Visitors were infrequent. When they did come, the scholars 
seemed to think they would bear watching — at least they did watch 
them. The most important visitor was the chairman of the school 
committee. While he was there the classes were all called out to 
give him an idea of the progress they were making. One thing he 
was sure to do in the reading lessons was, after the child had read, 
to ask him, " Now what did they do .?" 

The boy turned to his book and started to repeat in the same 
sing-song manner the words he had just read. 

" No, no," said the committee-man, " shut your book, and tell me 
wdiat they did." 

That accomplished, he would try to get the boy to read con- 



8o 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



versationally, instead of sing-song, but his success was not flattering. 
Just before the committee left, the scholars shut up their books and 
sat about straight, while the visitor rose, put his hands behind his 
back, and made some " remarks " to them. These were to the pur- 
port that they should be tidy, and keep the room tidy, and that it 
would be a great help to success in after-life to have good lessons and 
to learn to behave well. 

The great visitors' day, and indeed the grand occasion of the term, 
was " examination day." The schoolroom was swept out very clean 
the night before, or perhaps well scrubbed with soap and water, so 
that a slight odor of soapiness and sense of dampness lingered all 
through the following day. The morning session was a short one, 




A rainv-day school at Iio/iw 



OF TO-DAY. 

r 



Si 



that the scholars miiiht have j)lcnty 
of time to eat dinner and dress 
themselves in their " Sunda\ -<i^o-to- 
mectin's." They came in the after- 
noon very spick and span. Chairs 
were brought in from the neigh- 
bors', and a little mild i)lay indulged 
in before the bell rang to call them 
indoors. Not much was dc^ne until 
visitors began to arrive, and an air of 
exjiectancy and solemnity brooded 
over the schoolroom. Women and 
very small children were the only 
visitors, usually, and it was before 
them that the scholars were called 
out to recite such things as they 
knew best, and j)OSsibly to speak a 
few pieces and read compositions. 
The visitors were further entertained 
by being allowed to examine the 
scholars' writing books, and to look through the school register, 
wherein each scholar's regularity of attendance was indicated, and 
where were put down the names of such callers as the school h id 
had. By and by there was a recess, where, of necessity, the play 
was not very vigorous, because the scholars all had their best things 
on, in which thev were less comfortable and free than usual, and 
which thev felt under obligation to keej) slick and clean. When 




Out- of tlu- I'i^ h 



S2 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



school was finally let out for good and the scholars were without 
doors they rejoiced in a pandemonium of shoutings and waving of 
hats. 

They rejoiced because school days were over ; and yet — and yet — 
what happier days does life bring than the care-free days one spends 
in a Country School ? 





now THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. 

UMOR, it is said, consists in the unexpected- 
ness of an idea or expression. Even a good 
joke heard a second time has lost something- 
of its flavor; and a poi)ular bit of slang, which 
originally may have had an agreeable tang 
about it, wearies and disturbs by its fretjuent 
repetition. 

In that the child's thought continually wan- 
ders aside from the routine paths of its elders, 
its speech and action is full of unconscious humor. Indeed, the 
humor must be unconscious to have any charm, for the child who 
tries to be funny is certain to make a dismal failure of it. Children 
are readily enkindled with interest and enthusiasm, and their 
thought at such times is often very happy and luminous. It many 
times runs far astray, but that does not make it less interesting. 
Nor is a wrong answer always indicative of dullness or poor teach- 
ing. It is as frequently due, I think, to brightness and originality. 
The child, when it begins to observe, finds the medley of sounds 
wiiicii it encounters, with all their different meanings, l)ewildering, 
and, as is to be expected, often uses one word instead of another 



84 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



which to some degree resembles it. Children jump to conclusions 
even more frequently than grown-up people do— which is saying a 
good deal — and they at times make a wild use- of disconnected ideas 
that they have chanced to pick up. But they at other times will 
make an explanation with a simplicity and patness that might well 
move the most learned to envy. 

In writing, children get badly entangled by the words which are 
not spelled as pronounced. They have a strong inclination to spell 




The commonest type of the country schoolhoiise. 



phonetically, but those qucerly constructed words they have learned 
haunt their minds and they sometimes spell one of the simple words 
the long way. Punctuation is likewise a trouble to them. Usually 



HOW THK SCHCJLARS THINK AND WRITE. 



85 



they put in an occasional period, and may even venture to use a 
comma, l)ut tiicy are sparing in the use of both, and avoid other 
marks altogetlicr. Capitals are another disturbing element to the 
limpid flow of the child's th()u_i,dit when writing;. Children, however, 
are pretty sure to start with a capital and begin most sentences with 
one. A few are sprinkled in promiscuously, and if some are mis- 
placed, there are lacks elsewhere, so that the average is about right. 
A scientific division of the words which fall last on the lines they 
are writing and still lack for room, is understood by few. Most 
put in a hyphen after the last letter the line will contain with 
entile indej)endence of syllables, and begin the next line where 
they left off. Others avoid the dilemma by the habit of leaving 
a margin along the right border of the page, so that long words 
can run over into that without necessity for division. vStill others 
turn such words downward along the edge till written out in a 
cramped fullness. 

The scholars are most entertaining and do their best when writ- 
ing on a subject whicli engages their personal feeling and interest — 
something whicii is a part of their own experience and observation. 
What they write of things far off is, as a ride, dry and stiff. On such 
topics the children express themselves more corrcctlv than when 
writing of things about home — on the same principle that one does 
not stuml)le so often when walking sedately as when in enthusiastic 
haste. Hut culture conns from love of learning, not from present 
correctness of expression, and the children undoubtedly gain far more 
in jiutting on paper what they have learned by sight and hearing than 
in writing out what they have gained from books. 



86 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

The examples which follow were all gathered in a small New 
England village described in an earlier chapter as Riverbend. 

DEFINITIONS. 

A dwarf is one that holds up a lady's train. 

Sister: If there was a girl and she lived at your house and she 
was your mother's daughter, then she would be your sister. 

Missionary : One who makes hats. One who surveys land. 

The missionaries went to invert the Indians. 

Remember means to know afterwards what you know now. 

Some kinds of poultry are chickens, hens and lambs. 

A territory is a small place down in a valley. 

Cutlery is knives forks and sewing-machines. 

Work is keeping at something all the time. 

Trouble is having something that you don't like. 

History is studying an examination. 

Crying is shidding tears. 

News is to hear something that we have not beared before. 

Scholars are children studying. 

Work is to help the poor ; that is the best of work. 

If there was a poor old lady living alone it would be kindness to 
do her work. 

History is a study of the United States. 

History is a history telling about olden times. 

History tells about wars. 

History is a book that the scholars study about. 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. %y 

News is to here things. 

News is when anything new happens. 

To be contented is to have everything you want. 

Contented means to be happy wherever you are. 

Contented is when you have enough. 

You are contcjitcd when you are asleep. 

To crv is to feel very bad. 

Work means to do something hard. 

Bussy is when you have a lot of work to do. 
A laugh is when you are happy. 

Vegitables are all kinds of fruit. 

The diameter of the earth was Noah's dove. ^ 

Colors are different shades. 

Study is to learn. 

Arithmetic is to do different sums. 

Arithmetic is used to trade with. 

Fire is very hot and the color of red. 

A picture is to repersent anything. 

A picture is something that looks like what it was drawn from. 

A picture is something to look at. 

Writeing is made of ink and lead. 

Write is to talk with letters. 

Pai)er is to rigiit. 
Reading is talking. 

An animal is something that has 4 or more legs. 

An animal is a cow who gives milk. 
Animals are made of flesh and bones. 



88 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

Dirt is something we could not live without. 

An oasis is a desert place. 

An oasis is a flock of trees in a desert. , 

A gizzard is where the gravel goes. 

A gizzard is a kind of fowl. 

Bacon is a streak of lean and fat. 

Shoulder is the joints of animals which holds them up. 

A favor is to do something good. 

Henpecked means to be governed by your wife. 

Flowers are a vegitable. 

Favor is a bottle of water that smells good. 

Favor means when you tell some one to go after something 
and they go. The one that asks the boy is the one who does the 
favor. 

Favor is when a boy does something for his mother. 

A flag is what you wave. 

Metal is a stone. 

Metal is something good to wear. 

A city is a large place. 

A city is a lot of buildings. 

A city is a place where they sell groceries. 

A city is a place where they sell grain for horses and cows. 

Desire means to know everything. 

Velvet means the fur on a cat's ear. 

Whisker means a hair on a cat's mouth. 

Noiseless means to make a little noise. 

Spkled means little dogs. 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE 



89 




i 




AJU 



iiioicslonii. 



Toothsome means hard. 

Almonds are a kind of pudding. 

Occupations of people in Hadley : Farminc:, grindins;, making 
broomes, keep store, keep postoffice, make whips, make candy, they 
bild houses, they cat, they drink. 
. Luncheon means to eat between meals. 

Feast means to have a good deal. 

Sky is made up of fog. 

The sky is where the moon and sun is. 
13 



90 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

Air is a good deal like weather. 

Air is wind. 

Air is what you breave. ^. 

Eat is to make your jaws go. 

Eat means the digestion of food. 

To eat is to swallow anything. 

To eat is to satisfy your appetite. 

Home is the place of your parents. 

Home is you's house. 

Calendars are made of paper and numbers. 

Calendars are used in telling how warm and cold it is. 

Fruits is a bige apples is a red and it is about bigs as a pair 
that is sweet. 

A fruit is something that comes on a tree. 

A whip is a stick and a lash on the end of it. 

A whip is something good to lick horses with. 

A mountain is lots of trees. 

A mountain is a big pile of dirt. 

Money is a round and has a sign on it. 

Money is to by things with. 

Sky is clouds. 

Sky is air. 

Sky is something that the rain falls out of. 

Weather is rain or shine. 

Eat means your mouth. 

Play means when you are running around and hiding behind 
trees and houses. 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. 



91 



Roasts is a part of a cow. 

The cattle products of South America arc hides, tallow, and 
silver. 

They have stews at hoardino:-houscs. 

Government is the governor. 

Fiercely is very ugi^ly. 

Ditches is a hole. 

Destroy means to have a book tored up. 

Pitfalls means to pitty anybody. 

Suddenly meanes that think she will die. 
>- Pounces means to jump up on a cat or anythinij. 

The number of people on the earth was the reason for its be- 
ing flattened at tlie poles. 

Greedy means to eat some food away from another. 

Eager is to watch and see what another eats. 

Ravenous means hurry. 

Extravigrant means to use all the money you can. 

Lonesome means to have somel)ody gone away. 

Carelessly means to lose a cliild. 

Invitation means to go to a house to eat. 

Business-like is a man that works. 

Bordered is to have everything in. 

Daughter is a man's girl. 

Enter is to go to the school-house. 

Unlike is to be puplite to anybody. 

A ball is made out of leather and stuffms. 

A bell is used to commence school with. 



92 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



Dictionary is where they keep all the words people don't know. 
Carelessly is not to be careless. 
The almanac is to look up things with. ^ 
The almanac tells the date of the year. 
Earth is ground. 
A ball is to through. 
Pair is to eat. 
Pare is shoes. 

A book is a thing that has a stiff cover. 
A bill is when you owe somebody. 
Paint is something red. 
Paint is a yellow color. 

The sun is a thing that shines in my eyes. 
A blotter is some ink and is on the paper. 
Income is to come in. 
Income means to go to a house. 
Passion means to pass a car. 
Trading is to biy things. 
An elf is a small animal. 
A sheaf is any bundle. 
Huge means to feel bad. 
Leaf is any thin piece. 

A bell is something to ring made of tin and iron. 
Almanac is a book with pictures in it. 

,The- almanac shows us when it is going to rain and when there 
is going to be a knew moon. 

Pair is a fruit that grows on a tall tree. 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. 



93 



CONFESSIONS OF A P.AD BOY WHO REFORM FD. 

I was a cureious little boy when I first went to school I dident 
like to o^o anyway. I would torment the teacher the worst kind 
and I woidd do every thine; that she dident want me to do and if 
she wanted me to do a thing 1 wouldent do it and she orot so mad 
with me she would shut me up in the closit but that dident do no 
good I would get out of the window 
and go home, when I got up to read 
I would say whatever came into my 
mind and she would send me to my 
seat, and I would sit and laugh over 
it like a monkey but she thought she 
would try a new rule to be sure. she 
would give me a good whipping with 
the ruelar when I dident mind, that I 
got use to after a while and didient 
mind it when I came to school in the 

winter time I would bring snow in on The teacher gives om- of the boys a 

c , I 1 11 11 sliakini'. Drawn by the boy. 

my teat she wuukl tell me to go back 

out. I was so cold 1 dident want to and she would give me a 
good shaking up and I liked it beaucause it warmed me up. the 
next teacher we got was better than the first one she I liked 
very much she would give a card every night when I went 
home antl she said T was the best boy in school. I carraid my 
dinner to school, there was a big tree near the school house us 
boys would get up in the tree to eat our dinners one of the boys 




94 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

got out to far on the limb and it broke and he fell but he loged 
on a nother limb down a little ways. 



Al. ^ 



POETRY. 

Composed on the 26th day of February. 

We heard 
A blue bird 
This morning 
As a warning 
That spring is near 
And is all most here. 

A LETTER. 

Harry made a tobogain Sataday. and we had som slides it was 
very very coald and it sleud so that we went down the hill back- 
wards. 

We have a new hierd man his name is Robert he seams a 
verry good man so far. 

I can scate alone but I fall down a good many times. We scate 
on a pond opersite the male box. 

It snowed yesterday and rained hard in the night, and so we 
have a crust and the trees look like glass ones and they look so 
graceful and pretty i carnt posably discrib them. every thing is 
beautyful. 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. '^5 

We go to school now and the week sHps by so fast that we find 
sataday in the middle of the week so we should think. We doant 
find much time to waist. 

To day I had to see how many seconds it took me to add 8 + 9 + 
5 + 4 + 8 + 7 + « + 9 + ^^ + 7 + 6 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9. it took me 30. hut I 
did not get it wright. 

Harry choped of a piece of a log of slipery elm yesterday and 
we pealed it and ate some. 

Aunt Sahra is a bed witli a headake. I have bin sowing on a 
soiu": machine. 



*& 



Lau 



ra. 



P. S. this is the largest letter I ever rote. 

P. S. You did not say any thing about my last letter so i 
think it was rite. 




OUT CAMPING. A STORY. 

Once there was a boy who was very ricli he become so ricli he 
bought the world. One day he was out camping he t brought he 
would go out flushing so he got in one of the boats, he saw some 
whales down to the lower end of the river so he tluought he would 
catch one, so rowed down to them, be four he got down there one 



96 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

came and upset the boat, and he svvoUovv him and the boat floated 
down the river, so one day his mother came down to the camp, so 
she went out in the boat and throught she would catch one and she 
caught one and put it in the boat it eat her up and the boat floated 
down the river into the ocen. 



COMPOSITIONS. 
JACK FROST. 

Jack frost never comes out in the summer. But in the winter he 
is out every day then he bit our toes and finger. When he is here 
we can have a lot of fun here are some of the thing that we can do 
when he is here sligh down hill, make snow balls, get sleight ride, 
get our feet wet. But when he is gone we can have a lot of fruit, 
these are some of the fruits pears apples cherry graps. We can not 
have any of thoes thing in the winter. In the winter time we have 
more fun than in the summer. We can go scaking on the rivers. 
Some times Jack Frost does not freez the water hard enought so we 
go into the water and get wet. Jack Frost makes our feet wet so 
when we take off our shoes they stick to our feet and so when we 
get up in the morning we have a hard time geting them on. 

TREES. 

Trees grow in the ground. A tree is tall, it bears a good many 
kinds of fruit one is apples another is pears. My apples trees do not 
bear any fruit, but they are yoused for shad trees and to get the sap 
to use. Trees are very useful. In the fall the leaves of Maple turn 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. 



97 



into a pretty collor red that makes it look pretty. In the winter 
the leaves fall off of the trees and leav them bear. When the 
leaves fall off people rake them up, and use them for beding. In 
the spring the trees commenee to leaf out. Trees look dead in 
the winter, and in the summer they do not look dead but bright 
and leaves on them. When trees are dead they have no leaves 
on them and do not bear any fruit, so people cut them down. 
Trees look pretty and bear fruit when they are alive, but when 
they are dead they do not look pretty or bear fruit. I think 1 
have ritten quite enough so I think I had better stop. 







ClIirMUNKS. 

A chipmunks are very C/h^Alm^^ 
prety. And thare are a graite ^1 ^ ff -*-wt- 0^4AMl 

menny of them. And they 
eat chestnuts and walnuts and 
butternuts, and they live in 
the woods i think I have 
seen one. they are striped, 
the huntters catch them, 
they store thare food away 
to eat in the winter, they are 
about as small as a good 
sized rat. we see them in the 
fall, they live in an old roten trunks of trees, 
out in the winter 

1 can not think of enny think elce so I will stop Mary Smith. 







Facsimile of one of the youngest scholars' 
manuscript. 



thev never come 



98 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 



FISH. 

Fish are good to eat. They hve in water in fresh water and salt 
water, in ponds brocks. In rivers lakes Atlantic Ocean to. We 

catch them with hooks 
and line. Fish swim 
with fins and tail to. 
Some have no eyes in 
caves. Sometimes fish 
eat other fish. Fish eat 
insects. 

GOING TO SCHOOL. 




Blackboard dm Tviugs. 
' A farmer, his little girl, and his 7vife." 



I like to go to school. 
I like to study in my 
books. I am in the third reader and Arithmetic and Geogeraphy. 
the school is made of brick and we sing. My teacher dose haft 
to write songs on the boart and then we learn them and sing the 
song I have a little work to do at home. Be fore I go to 
school I have to wash my face and hands and change my dress 
and put on my hat and coat and start off for school. And when 
any body sayis enny sentes that has aint I poot it on the bord 
and leave it ther till night and then rase it. We have a tree a 
little awayes from the school house and it is a good tree to it is 
a tree that dose shade the hose nise. We have four girls in school 
nine boys in school. We have in school five black boards in school, 
the boards are about full every moning. the schoolers want to go 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. 



99 



to the boards and write thcr words We draw at school every 
fridday. We have but one teacher. We have some lioer seeds 
in the bed And I must tell about what is in the iloer bed 
There are peonies, poppies, sweet peaes, scarlet beanes, moring glo- 
ries larkspur, gladioli, holly, hocks. 

And that is what we have get in the Iloer bed. And what we 
play at recess is Kings-land and squart-tag and stone-tag and wood- 
tag and hide and cop. 



MIS HAP. 

As I was driveing in the corn-held to smooth olf the field to 
plant. 





lOO THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

I turn round to short and the horses turn around and round tell 
they tip the smoother up endways and I fell under it and the horses 
got fritting and ran home They was a nother man tried to stop 
them and his ran a way up to the barn 

I haller whoa but they did not stop till they reach the barn. 
Then we came runing af the them. When they got to the barn 
they tried to get in the door. They did not get in the 
door the pepol in the house thought they was a 
team coming in the yard and they went to the door 
and saw the horses come full speed. 
./ schoolboy. -pj^g peopl in the house wear scart but they ran 

out caught thores by the bridle, the swet ran off of one hores 
legs and I througt he was bleeding. I back the hores out of 
the barn and shith them up and took them down to the modow 

again. 

The End. 

GREAT FUNS AT SCHOOL. 

Our school begins at nine Oclock. We first have singing & 
then comes the lessons There aint but three boys in school larg 
enough to play ball so we generaly play Kingsland I live only 
about a quarter of a mile from the school house so I go home to 
diner. At reces in the afternoon now it is so hot that we do'nt do 
any tiling but talk. In June our school lets out for a long vacation. 
Then in the fall the school begins again. & it is cooler so that we 
play hide & coop squat tag etc. Then the chestnuts begin to get 
ripe & our teacher gives us a day to go chestnuting. Then it begins 



HOW THE SCHOLARS THINK AND WRITE. lOI 

to get cold & wc hang around the stove to keep warm. Then the 
snow begins to come & we have great fun sHding down liil. There 
is a hirge hill in frunt of the school house cSl we go down so fast that 
it takes your breth away When it gets very cold & the ice begins 
to freze we skate up & down the pond like the wind. When it 
snows & covers the pond we take a shovel & broom & clean it off 
Then after a while it begins to get warm & the ice begins lo get 
weak. And one day when we were skating the ice cracked like 
every thing &. one of the boys got in but we did not stop skating 
becaus we thought it would soon be over ds: it was soon over cS: it 
was all slush & mud. And we made a raft and floated around in the 
water «& had great fun. After a while the water came up verv liigii 
<Sl the teacher had to come to school in a boat. & we had great fun 
catching flood wood The water came uj) so high that some of the 
houses were fluded But it did not last long & then it came around 
to hot wether again. 

VACATION. 

In vacation we have lots of fun and lots of works first comes 
the seeds to be sowed then the potatoes and corn to be planted. 
Then comes the weeding and hoeing to be done. 1 do not like to 
weed onions it is a tiresome job to be bending over all day and 
almost breaks my back. 2nd picking strawl)erries is also a tiresome 
job mutch like weeding onions. But work is not all of the vacation 
there is some play such as playing base ball Ilide-and-go-seek kings- 
land foot ball etc. Now playing base ball is a ver)^ good game but 
you are apt to get hurt such as spraining your finger smashing your 



I02 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. 

teeth etc. the best of kings-land is the geting the one who is it on 
to the oposite side and pull his hair, foot ball is a very ruff game 
in which boys are hurt quite often. Next comes the haying we 
begin haying about the 22 of June that is our first haying first the 
grass is to be mowed then it is to be shook out then turned over a 
cuple of times then raked up then loaded into the wagon then 
tosed into the bay and it is done. Then comes the second hoeing 
not so hard as the first but hard enough for me. Then the second 
haying not as good a crop as the first and the hay is mad just as the 
first crop which I told you about. Then comes the potatoes to be 
dug then picked up and put in to the cellar. Then the corn to be 
cut and then husked and carried to the barn then the stalks to be 
cut up and made ready for the cows to feed on during the winter. 
Then the other vegitables to be got into the cellar such as the squash 
pumpkin onions etc. But to take it away through I think I had 
rather have vacation than school. 

THE END. 




H 214 79 



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